Romanian case linked to teen’s death

A prolonged investigation by a number of international law enforcement agencies yesterday led to a man appearing in a Romanian court charged in connection with the death of a Tyrone teenager.

Ronan Hughes, 17, killed himself in 2015, just hours after being blackmailed over intimate images of himself.

The young GAA player, who was a pupil at St Joseph’s Grammar school in Donaghmore, was tricked into sharing the images of himself online.

Ronan told his parents that he was being blackmailed and they reported it to the local police station.

However, three days later, when the schoolboy had not paid them the £3,300 they demanded, the blackmailers went through with their threat and sent the images to his friends.

Ronan killed himself a few hours later.

According to the Irish News, local priest Benny Fee said at the time: “He did not take his own life. His life was taken by these faceless people who put the child into a ‘burning building’ that he felt he could not escape.”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) launched a determined campaign to track down those involved and the focal point of the investigation was tracking the computer used to blackmail the teenager.

While it was initially suspected that the blackmailers may be in Africa, investigators were able to ascertain that in fact it could be traced back to Romania.

The PSNI said it liaised with a number of agencies in a variety of jurisdictions, including Poliia Român?a (Romanian Police), the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism in Romania, the National Crime Agency, and Europol, as part of the investigation.

As a result, a 31-year-old male appeared yesterday at Bucharest Municipal Court in Romania, charged with producing and distributing indecent images of children and blackmail.

The PSNI confirmed that the charges were connected to its investigation into webcam blackmail linked to Ronan’s death in June 2015.

Detective Superintendent Gary Reid, of the PSNI’s Reactive and Organised Crime Branch, said: “Detectives from the PSNI are currently in Romania assisting our colleagues with this phase of the investigation.

“This has been complex and protracted and we are grateful to our colleagues in our partner agencies for their assistance to date.

“As legal proceedings are now ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

He did, however, say he wanted to remind people to be mindful of their online activity, particularly with strangers and, if they felt they have been compromised online in any way, to report it to police.