Joseph Shepherd, 21, of Lockport, threatened to commit suicide over the internet. Shepherd chatted in a virtual chat room about killing himself. UK users in Gwent, North Wales, were alarmed when they viewed Shepherd’s webcam and saw him lying still in a prone position. Some users contacted local UK police, who then contacted their counterparts in US.

Shepherd’s IP address was traced to his home and he received a visit from his local police. Shepherd tried to excuse the false death threat as a joke. Shepherd said he simply fell asleep with his webcam turned on.

Police investigated and found plausible reason that Shepherd had set up the scene to fake his own death. Shepherd was charged with false report of an incident and aggravated harassment. Shepherd is due to appear in court later in August.

Internet users have been vigilant since Abraham Briggs committed suicide after voicing his threat to chatroom users. The users did not take him seriously and he was found dead hours later. The chatroom users in North Wales were not taking any more chances with random encounters of suicide threats.

Joseph Shepherd photo link.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 6:23 am and is filed under Gossip.