A father who was blackmailed by a sex scammer using a compromising video posted to social media begged for his life in the hours leading up to his suicide.

Heartbreaking messages, sent by the desperate Irish man shortly before his death, reveal that he asked the scammer to take pity on him and delete footage.

When pressed for cash the man, who was in his 40s, wrote: “Please I only have my kids. I’m sorry, please. Don’t do this to my kids, I love them and don’t want to leave them.”

Earlier this year we revealed how a garda investigation had been launched into the death and alleged scam which involved a man in the east of the country.

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His wife told Indepedent.ie that she believed her husband handed over €1,000 to the scammers before his death after he was duped into performing a sex act on camera.

However the fraudsters continued to press him for cash before eventually posting the video on Facebook. He took his life a short time later.

Expand Close Copy of the messages sent by the father who took his life after an online blackmail scam. Supplied by family / Facebook

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Whatsapp Copy of the messages sent by the father who took his life after an online blackmail scam. Supplied by family

At the weekend police investigating an almost identical webcam blackmail linked to the death of Northern Irish teenager Ronan Hughes charged a man in Romania.

Now the Irish mother, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect her children, has released a series of messages that her husband sent in the moments before he died.

She explained: “I don’t want anybody else to go through what we are going through. He suffered from depression but that is not the reason he died.

“He took his own life but in my eyes it was murder. He had no choice.”

When scammers pressed him for cash shortly before his death, he wrote in a Facebook direct message: “I don’t have a lot, suffer from depression, I’m bad way, plse [please] I have kids.”

The messages from the sender have since been deleted but the messages from the Irish father reveal that he became increasingly desperate.

Expand Close Copy of the messages sent by the father who took his life after an online blackmail scam. Supplied by family / Facebook

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Whatsapp Copy of the messages sent by the father who took his life after an online blackmail scam. Supplied by family

He wrote: “I don’t have that kind of money. I’m seriously going through a really bad time.”

At one point he spoke about his children and the effect this might have on them.

“Plse [sic] I only have my kids. I’m sorry, plse. Don’t do this to my kids, I love them and don’t want to leave them.”

He continued: "I really only wanted to talk, I'm sorry, my kids please, they're beautiful."

The father asked the scammers to delete the video and told them he was on medication for depression.

His wife explained that the only message she can see from the gang read: ‘So will you pay or not.”

She said: “The most worrying message that my husband sent was the last one which read ‘What do you mean, go to the shed?’ He was found in the shed.”

Expand Close Copy of the messages sent by the father who took his life after an online blackmail scam. Supplied by family / Facebook

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Whatsapp Copy of the messages sent by the father who took his life after an online blackmail scam. Supplied by family

The wife explained that she wished to speak out again following the arrest and charge of a suspect in Bucharest, Romania over the death of Tyrone teenager Ronan Hughes (17).

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The suspect, aged 31, was accused of producing and distributing indecent images of children and blackmail, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.

The heartbroken wife of the man from the east of the country said she read the reports of the Hughes case.

She told Independent.ie: “I would like to see the gardaí do something like what the PSNI did.

“It’s scary and it’s still going on. I have seen people put things up recently saying my friend got caught. I don’t think enough is being done to prevent this kind of cyber bullying.

“I don’t think enough is being done to catch these people.”

Expand Close Ronan Hughes / Facebook

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She continued: “In his inquest they recorded his death as death by hanging. As far as I am concerned he was sentenced to hang.”

If you need someone to talk to, contact: Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org

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