This might be the saddest story I’ve read all week.

Via The Journal

Tyrone schoolboy Ronan Hughes was tricked into sending explicit photos of himself through social media after receiving images from someone he thought was a girl. It turned out the messages were from a gang of scammers based in Nigeria. They demanded more than £3,000 from the shocked teenager, threatening to send the photos of him to all of his friends.

Wow. Nigerian scammers have taken it to another disgusting level.

“We were very disappointed but we sat down and told him that if the images were published, it would blow over in a couple of weeks and we’d deal with it,” Gerard Hughes said. Just hours after Ronan found out a friend had been sent a link to the pictures, his father found his body in a field by their home.

He said he believes his son would still be here if he had been given more reassurance by police that they would try to track down those responsible in the days before his death. However the main message he and his wife want to get out is to parents.

“There’s no point in a parent taking a phone off a child when they don’t know what they’re doing themselves or how to access the technology themselves. My 13-year-old know more than I do and that’s not right. We just don’t want this tragedy to happen to anyone else.”

Feel so sad for his parents. Hope these criminals are caught!