A teenage boy was sentenced in a British court on Friday for assuming false personas in an Internet chat room in order to induce an online friend to try to kill him. The boy who was convicted, 14 at the time of the events in question, fooled his friend, then 15, with an "elaborate matrix of deceit" [and] fictional identities, including that of a spy, in the chat room, the court was told. Known only as "John," the boy invented a host of fictional characters to induce another teen, "Mark", to kill him.
The older teenager was eventually persuaded that he had been recruited by the British Secret Service to kill Boy B, after which he would be rewarded with a job as well as a sexual relationship with the 39-year-old female spy.
Judge David Maddison said I accept, fantastic though it seems when looked at now in the cold light of day, that ... so convincingly were the characters presented to you that you really did believe you had been recruited by the Secret Service to kill your co-accused and face the consequences if you did not do so.
"The end result is that you are to be sentenced for the extraordinary offence of inciting another to murder you and a further offence of perverting the course of justice."
