‘Gifted’ private schoolboy Dinal De Alwis, 16, killed himself after being blackmailed with nude images on Snapchat (Picture: Family collection)
A straight-A* student who dreamt of studying at Cambridge killed himself after he was blackmailed with nude photos on Snapchat.
‘Bright’ and ‘caring’ Dinal De Alwis, 16, had just started sixth form at Whitgift School in Croydon, where day fees reach £24,500.
An avid footballer and rugby player, Dinal achieved all A* in his GCSEs and began studying for the International Baccalaureate.
Dinal reached the top of the class in English at the school previously attended by former England rugby star Danny Cipriani and illusionist Derren Brown.
He’d even attended an open day at Cambridge where he hoped to study economics.
Dinal was a keen footballer and rugby player (Picture: Family Collection)
The straight A* student planned to study economics at Cambridge (Picture: Family collection)
Dinal’s father Kaushallya De Alwis cried in South London Coroner’s Court as he said: ‘Dinal was the most caring son. He was bright.’
He continued: ‘We come from Sri Lanka, so we were so proud to hear he was so good at English.
‘He was brave. He played for the football and rugby teams at Whitgift School. He never asked for anything from us. He was always happy with what he had.’
After returning from a family holiday in Majorca during the autumn half-term break on October 26, 2022, Dinal uncharacteristically told his mother: ‘Just leave me alone.’
It’s believed that at this point, the blackmailer had made contact with the teenager.
At 1am, Dinal was sent two nude photos of himself on Snapchat by a person who told him they would send them to ‘all his online followers’ unless he paid £100.
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The court heard the unknown blackmailer, who’s believed to have had other victims, taunted Dinal by writing: ‘So you think blocking me can stop me?
‘What do you want me to do – you want me to send to all of your followers? Why can’t you just pay me? £100?’
Dinal responded saying he had assumed the pictures had already been shared.
Instead of sending the blackmailer £100, Dinal slipped out of the family home around 2am and recorded a video saying he planned to take his own life.
Speaking of the night his ‘golden boy’ disappeared, Mr De Alwis said: ‘He messaged my wife and I to say he loved us and he told his two brothers that he loves them, and said they need to ‘look after mum and dad’.’
Just over an hour after recording the video on a suburban street, the 16-year-old’s body was found after he fell to his death, which was caught on CCTV.
Mr De Alwis said: ‘He didn’t show any sort of unhappiness. I think he wanted to avoid any shame from the images going public. I wish he had spoken to us.
‘He had always been so open in the past. But I think that when things are happening online, live, it feels like there is no time. He did nothing wrong.’
He added: ‘His loss is the biggest possible loss. It is so incredibly painful. The fact that he ended his life in this way… the world is so cruel.’
Police and the National Crime Agency admitted they were unable to trace the blackmailer but said that the extortionist appeared to have been operating from Nigeria.
Mr De Alwis called for a way to ‘track these things’ so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
He believes a girl may have taken the pictures while with Dinal before the images ended up in the wrong hands.
But he’s also aware blackmailers sometimes pose as girls online, luring victims with erotic images, asking for naked selfies in return and then demanding cash to keep them private.
Mr De Alwis told the Daily Mail: ‘Dinal had had some girlfriends, he’d been very open with me. I’d warned him to be careful. The grieving is never-ending.
‘I’m very worried about my younger son – he’s big time into all this social media, and young people underestimate the dangers around them.
‘There must be ways of tracking these things and parents should have access. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.’
The inquest ruled Dinal’s death a suicide.
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