Family PhotoPolice have arrested a woman on suspicion of assisting the suicide of a teenager who had been drawn into a “sinister” pro-suicide community online.
Vlad Nikolin-Caisley, from Southampton, was 17 when he secretly joined the website which the BBC understands is the focus of Ofcom’s first investigation using new powers under the Online Safety Act.
He then bought a poisonous chemical online which he swallowed at home, where lengthy attempts by his father and paramedics to resuscitate him failed.
A 29-year-old woman, from Merton, London, has been arrested on suspicion of intentionally doing an act capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide of another.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said she had been released on bail while its inquiries continue.
While suicide and attempted suicide are not in themselves criminal offences, it is illegal for someone to help someone else end their life.
In practice, a government paper states prosecutions under the Suicide Act 1961 (England & Wales) are “relatively rare”.
The paper reveals 19 out of 187 cases recorded as assisted suicides by police, over 15 years, up to the end of March 2024, resulted in court action.
Vlad’s family revealed the details of his death in a BBC Documentary in February in the hope of raising awareness of the dangers faced by children and vulnerable people online.
Vlad had been diagnosed with autism, depression and anxiety.
The government said it would tighten up laws that allow people to buy drugs online that can be used to take their own lives, following Vlad’s death and the death a 21 year old woman, also from Southampton.
