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Man hangs himself live on internet chatroom
A man has hanged himself live on the internet in Britain's first online suicide.
- Evening Standard
- Published: 00:00 March 25, 2007
London: A man has hanged himself live on the internet in Britain's first online suicide.
Kevin Neil Whitrick, 42, died in front of a webcam while broadcasting to a chatroom from his home.
An internet surfer in the West Midlands he had been chatting to contacted police after watching the scene in horror.
Officers broke into Whitrick's flat in Wellington, Shropshire, but he was not breathing. Despite attempts to revive him he was declared dead just after 11:15pm on Wednesday.
It is thought he broadcast his death on a webcam fitted on his computer monitor. Whitrick had been living in the flat for a year after splitting from wife Paula.
Cheerful
The couple's 12-year-old twins live with their mother nearby. They are said to have visited their father, who worked at RMW electrical services in Shrewsbury, at weekends.
Whitrick's mother would not comment. Sharon Atwal, from a cornershop opposite the flat, described Whitrick as "subdued" the last time she saw him.
She said: "Every night he'd take eight cans of Boddington's bitter from the fridge and restock it with cans from the shelf. He always seemed cheerful. On Wednesday night, though, he didn't seem himself, and it was the first night he did not restock the fridge. It was as if he knew he wouldn't be coming back. He always struck me as very happy, he was friendly and had two perfect kids. I cannot believe he has done this."
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