First person convicted for encouraging serious self-harm and suicide online

A man from Loughborough has been jailed after he repeatedly encouraged a vulnerable woman he met online to kill herself for his own sexual gratification.

Tyler Webb, 23, became the first person in the UK to be prosecuted under section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023, which makes it an offence to encourage serious self-harm online.

Webb was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court to a hybrid order of nine years and four months. This means he will be detained initially in a mental health facility and, if considered well enough, will serve the remainder of his sentence in prison.

The court heard Webb first contacted his victim, who cannot be named, on a social media forum where mental health was being discussed. He moved their conversations to Telegram, where he began urging her to harm herself. Prosecutor Louise Oakley described how Webb instructed her to injure herself, asked for photos of the wounds, and used these for his sexual pleasure.

In a chilling 44-minute video call on 2 July last year, Webb pressured the woman to take her own life while he watched. When it became clear she would not go through with it, he threatened to cut off contact. The woman reported Webb to police the next day, leading to his arrest on 10 July.

In a moving victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said: “He tried to kill me, not with his hands, but with his words. I do not want to call this encouraging serious self-harm and suicide. I want to call this what it is – an attempted murder through psychological means.” She added: “There will never be another second on this Earth where I don’t have to live with the pain of what happened.”

Webb, who admitted encouraging suicide and serious self-harm, has autism, borderline personality disorder, anxiety and depression. His defence barrister said he had struggled with mental health issues all his life and was now receiving hospital treatment.

Leicestershire Police praised the victim’s bravery in collecting crucial evidence, including recordings and screenshots. Detective Constable Lauren Hampton said: “Webb preyed upon a vulnerable woman at a time she was reaching out for help. Her courage in reporting this has undoubtedly safeguarded other vulnerable people.”

Alex Johnson from the Crown Prosecution Service described the case as a “watershed prosecution”, underlining how the Online Safety Act is already proving vital in tackling harmful online behaviour and protecting those most at risk.