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The conviction of an American “suicide voyeur” who encouraged a Ontario woman and British man to take their own lives in an Internet chat room has been overturned on free speech grounds.

After the Minnesota Supreme Court ruling, a lower court must now decide whether to bring fresh charges against William Melchert-Dinkel, a former nurse who was convicted on two rare counts of assisted suicide in 2011.

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He was found guilty of aiding the suicide of Mark Dryborough, 32, who hanged himself in Coventry in 2005, and of Nadia Kajouji, 18, who jumped into a frozen river in Ottawa in 2008.

In the original trial, the court was told that Mr. Melchert-Dinkel, who is married with two children, posed online as a compassionate female nurse to prey on depressed individuals, but then gave them advice on how to commit suicide.

He allegedly told police that he acted for the “thrill of the chase” and wanted to watch his targets die via a computer webcam.