A Yorkshire man has been sentenced to more than six years in jail after admitting encouraging a US citizen to kill themselves while on a video call.
Dylan Phelan, 21, was sentenced on Friday at Leeds crown court after previously pleading guilty to intentionally doing an act that was capable of encouraging the suicide of another person.
In October 2024, Travis Dyer, 21, from Louisiana, took his own life during a call between the pair and two other men.
Phelan also admitted to three counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image and one count of making an indecent image of a child.
Sentencing Phelan, the judge Barry Cotter admonished him for indulging his “morbid curiosity” at the expense of Dyer’s wellbeing, saying the deceased had needed “help and support but he got the very opposite of that from you”.
He said: “You wanted to feel like you had control over the actions of another. You showed no respect for the life of Travis Dyer.”
Phelan and the two other men were members of a private server on the virtual community platform Discord. The server, which they had called “Recovery4all”, had been created by the men as a forum to discuss mental health issues and exchange advice.
Representing the prosecution, Andrew Petterson told the court that the name was “ironic” and that Phelan and the other two members sought to taunt Dyer and worsen his mental health.
The court heard that Dyer had been through numerous personal hardships in the years leading up to his death, including the death of his mother and sister by drowning, which had caused his mental health to decline.
Having contacted the group in the hope of finding support, the court was told, instead he was taken advantage of by Phelan and the other two men, who convinced him to carve each of their initials into his skin and to buy drugs and alcohol with whatever money he had.
“The deceased shared his suicidal thoughts within the group and his plans to take his own life,” said Petterson, who claimed Phelan and his co-conspirators waged “a campaign of cruelty during which Travis Dyer was groomed into taking his own life”.
During the last call, which was recorded, Phelan can be heard goading Dyer to kill himself, including telling him to “pull the trigger” and laughing.
Dyer’s body was only found after one of the other men in the group told someone outside it that he had died, leading to police in the US being contacted.
Phelan was brought into Elland police station by his parents, who had been informed that their son may have played a role in Dyer’s death by a woman with whom Phelan had established an online correspondence.
Phelan was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order alongside the six years and four months sentence he received.
