16-year-old UK-based Sinhalese student takes his own life after being blackmailed by Nigerian yahoo boy

The young boy was top of his class in English and Economics.

A 16-year-old Sinhalese student, Dinal De Alwis, has taken his own life after he was allegedly blackmailed by a Nigerian yahoo boy.

According to DailyMail, Dinal had just started sixth form when he was contacted by someone on social media platform Snapchat.

Dinal was contacted with two photos of himself by the fraudster, telling him that they would be sent to all his online followers unless he paid £100. Not knowing what to do, Dihal left his family home, near Croydon, South London, and recorded a brief video saying he planned to end it all.

His father, Kaushaliya 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’.”

The South London Coroner’s Court heard that the blackmailer, who is also thought to have other victims, wrote to Dinal: “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?”

Dihal had just begun studying for the International Baccalaureate in sixth form and was top of the school in English and Economics, and the desire to attend the University of Cambridge to read Economics.

Although, the contact with the blackmailer happened in October 2022 (weeks into his sixth form programme), Dihal asked that the pictures had already been distributed. This led him to slip out of the house at 2am and recorded a brief video of himself walking down the street. His body was found less than an hour later.

Talking about his son, Mr De Alwis wept as he told the coroner: “Dinal was the most caring son. He was bright. He got straight As in all of his subjects at GCSEs and was top of the school for English and:economics.

“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. 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.

“He didn’t show any sort of unhappiness. I think he wanted to avoid any sh@me from the images going public. I wish he had spoken to us.”