Sick internet 'troll' who posted vile messages and videos taunting the death of teenagers is jailed for 18 WEEKS

Jailed: Sean Duffy arrives at Reading Magistrates' Court where he was jailed for his online campaign of malicious taunts that mocked dead teenagers

An internet ‘troll’ who posted vile abuse on Facebook memorial sites dedicated to dead children was jailed yesterday.

Sean Duffy caused ‘untold distress’ by mocking a 15-year-old schoolgirl who committed suicide, leaving obscene messages and videos on a condolence page set up by her family.

The 25-year-old – the son of a BBC comedy writer who worked with Terry Wogan – also hijacked tribute websites of three other children he had never met.

In one of the first cases of its kind, the autistic loner was sentenced to 18 weeks behind bars and banned from using social networking sites for five years.

He had admitted he was hooked on the sick craze of ‘trolling’ – where internet users deliberately leave abusive and bullying comments on networking sites.

Yesterday one of his victim’s parents hit out at Facebook, calling on the website to do more to tackle the problem after it emerged that one girl wrongly accused by others of posting the messages had attempted suicide.

The teenager took a drug overdose, but survived to see her innocence proved when Duffy was arrested earlier this year.

Reading magistrates heard how the alcoholic, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome – a form of autism in which sufferers have difficulties with communication and social interaction – trawled the internet looking for tribute sites.

He targeted Natasha MacBryde, who threw herself under a train close to her home in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, on Valentine’s Day this year.

The next day, Duffy trashed her Facebook memorial page, branding the public schoolgirl a ‘spoiled little ****’.

He attached to her tribute site another Facebook page entitled Tasha MacTank Engine featuring a video in which the face of the Royal Grammar School Worcester pupil was put on a train with the theme to Thomas the Tank Engine playing in the background.

Prosecuting, Joanne Belsey said Natasha’s father Andrew felt physically sick by the ‘cowardly and nasty’ abuse which ‘added to the horror of dealing with the death of their beautiful daughter’.

Targeted: Duffy wrote abuse on tribute pages for Lauren Drew, 14, (left), who died following an epileptic fit and Natasha McBryde, 15, who committed suicide earlier this year



‘He could not believe that anyone would stoop to such depths,’ she said. ‘It was virtual bullying.’

Duffy also created a Facebook page attacking 14-year-old Lauren Drew, who died in January following an epileptic fit at her home in Gloucester.

Fuelled by alcohol, he cruelly targeted her grieving mother, impersonating her dead daughter on the website, saying: ‘Help me Mummy, it’s hot in Hell.’

Speaking outside court, her father Mark called for social networking sites to take more responsibility for content.

He said: ‘Facebook is very hard to get hold of in this situation. You can report these things but there’s no one to actually speak to.

‘It comes up, it’s removed and then it reappears. These days children live on Facebook, it’s their lives and they’re just so vulnerable.’

Duffy also targeted a site for 16-year-old Hayley Bates, of Biddulph, Staffordshire, who died in a car crash on the M6 last September, while in another case he created a page called ‘Jordan Cooper rest in pieces’ for a 14-year-old who was stabbed to death in Newcastle upon Tyne, in February.

The loner, who lives on benefits in Reading, was caught only when Miss MacBryde’s family alerted police, who were able to trace the false email accounts he used.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of sending malicious communications, relating to Miss MacBryde. Three further offences were taken into consideration.

Trolling is an offence under the Malicious Communications Act, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison.



Duffy posted videos of Natasha MacBryde (pictured) calling her 'Tasha the Tank Engine' with her face etched on the famous train

Devastating: Tributes to Natasha MacBryde were hijacked by cowardly Duffy, who wrote vile things on the heartfelt tribute pages

Sentencing him yesterday, magistrate Paul Warren said: ‘The offences are so serious only a custodial sentence could be justified.’ Dressed in a checked shirt and jeans, Duffy remained expressionless as he was led to the cells.

The Mail can reveal that his father is John Duffy, 54, who wrote for Terry Wogan’s Radio 2 Breakfast show and found success when a spoof Twitter account he set up parodying Cheryl Cole – called ‘Cheryl Kerl’ – became a hit.

Mr Duffy said his son left the messages because he wanted attention. ‘He was getting a response and a reaction from doing it,’ he said. ‘He didn’t understand the far-reaching implications of what he was doing.’