WARNING: This text comprises particulars of sexual extortion and will have an effect on those that have skilled it or know somebody affected by it.
RCMP are hailing the conviction and sentencing of a person in Nigeria who tried to blackmail a Surrey, B.C., teenager by posting his intimate photographs on-line, saying “sextortions and fraud” won’t be tolerated by society.
Nigeria’s Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee mentioned Olukeye Adedayo was sentenced final week to jail phrases totalling 76 years, after offences that the RCMP mentioned resulted within the boy’s “sudden loss of life” in February 2023.
Nigeria’s monetary crimes company mentioned in social media posts that Adedayo confronted 18 prices, together with possession and distribution of kid pornography, tried extortion by threats, and cash laundering.
It mentioned Adedayo arrange an Instagram group utilizing the boy’s identify to distribute the pictures, which the RCMP mentioned the 14-year-old thought he had despatched to a teenage woman in an internet interplay that was over inside minutes.
WATCH | Sextortion results in B.C. boy’s suicide, police say:
Man in Nigeria charged in tragic B.C. teen sextortion case
Surrey RCMP have introduced prices in a tragic sexual extortion case involving a 14-year-old boy. Police say the previous scholar athlete took his personal life after he was blackmailed by an internet scammer in Nigeria. As Jon Hernandez studies, this is only one of a rising variety of sextortion circumstances.
The RCMP mentioned in a press release that Adedayo’s conviction got here after a world effort.
“The conviction and sentencing … is the results of an intense year-long worldwide investigation,” mentioned the assertion from the Surrey Provincial Operations Help Unit.
“This final result got here from collaborative efforts from the Surrey RCMP, the FBI, the Australian Federal Police and the (Nigerian) Financial and Monetary Crime Fee … We imagine this case delivers a robust message that sextortions and fraud won’t be tolerated in our group.”
“We prolong our ideas to the household and buddies of the younger sufferer on this file. We hope that the conclusion of the court docket course of gives them closure.”
The Mounties did not identify the boy, however at a information convention final yr, mentioned he had been appropriately recognized in media studies a few 14-year-old from Surrey who died by suicide.
Sentences to run concurrently
The Nigerian company mentioned Adedayo pleaded not responsible to all counts, however a decide convicted him of all prices and sentenced him final Thursday.
Nevertheless, the company mentioned the 18 sentences are to run concurrently, suggesting the longest sentence he’ll serve is seven years for every of the 4 counts of acquiring property underneath false pretences.
The fee mentioned the prosecution witnesses included a sergeant with the RCMP Critical Crime Unit.
A cost quoted by the fee mentioned that Adedayo created the Instagram group with the express photographs on or about Feb. 13, 2023.
The boy’s hockey crew posted a condolence message saying he died the following day.
Police mentioned in final yr’s information convention that the 14-year-old had been a goal of sextortion, through which he had been fooled into considering an individual asking for intimate photographs over Instagram and Snapchat was a teenage woman.
The perpetrator then advised the boy to purchase them present playing cards to forestall the pictures from being distributed on-line, police mentioned. The interactions had been solely minutes lengthy, investigators added.
Police offered a press release from the boy’s household final February, saying he was an “harmless baby” who cherished life and cherished hockey, and he was taken benefit of.
“As we grieve the lack of our son, we wish different mother and father to know this might occur to anybody,” the assertion mentioned.
“Speak to your children about web security, and hold the door to communication open, to allow them to come to you for assist.”
WATCH | Teenage boys typically focused by extortionists: 
Dying of boy renews calls to guard children from sextortion
The loss of life of a B.C. boy is renewing the dialog about how you can defend children from on-line sexual extortion. Specialists say it is typically teenage boys who’re focused.
The U.S.-based Community Contagion Analysis Institute launched a report right into a spate of sextortion makes an attempt originating from Nigeria final yr.
The group’s risk intelligence report talks a few “digital pandemic” of sextortion incidents mentioned to have risen 1,000 per cent within the previous 18 months.
Help is on the market for anybody who has been sexually assaulted. You may entry disaster traces and native assist companies by way of this Authorities of Canada web site or the Ending Violence Affiliation of Canada database. For those who’re in instant hazard or worry to your security or that of others round you, please name 911.
For those who or somebody is struggling, this is the place to get assist:
This information from the Centre for Habit and Psychological Well being outlines how you can discuss suicide with somebody you are fearful about.
