Diver killed himself following malicious email bombardment encouraging him to .......
This is sick! We should just take things easy. Well, never believe 100% what the net says.
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Diver killed himself following malicious email bombardment encouraging him to commit suicide
Last updated at 01:04 09 May 2008
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A deep-sea diving expert whose business was destroyed in a malicious email attack took his own life after being bombarded by emails encouraging him to commit suicide, an inquest heard today.
Steven Carmichael-Timson, 49, of Whitemill, Carmarthen, west Wales, secretly looked at suicide websites as he grew increasingly depressed.
He eventually sealed himself in his garden shed and used a length of pipe and a mechanical air compressor to asphyxiate himself with carbon monoxide fumes.
Deep-sea diving expert Steven Carmichael-Timson killed himself after a malicious email bombardment encouraging him to commit suicide
Llanelli coroner John Owen recorded a verdict today which graphically described how the well-known and much-liked diver took his own life in March this year.
"He killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed by messages he had received on his computer, including those from a suicide website encouraging him to kill himself," he said.
His widow Karen Carmichael-Timson, 52, who suffers from a heart condition, only learned of what drove her husband to suicide after receiving a malicious email herself the night before his funeral.
She then found a total of 700 emails on her husband's computer all offering advice on suicide and encouraging him to kill himself.
She said his problems began in January when her husband returned from a visit to Scapa Flow, off the north east coast of Scotland, a changed man.
While he had been away an attack on an on-line forum linked to his business spread malicious and unfounded rumours about him.
"The content of the messages were vile and caused the destruction of his reputation and consequently the business he had built," she told the inquest.
She said that at least 4000 people had "hit" on the website to view the malicious rumours and the information had been spread to other websites.
She said that after the destruction of his business her husband's moods fluctuated between "depression and rage".
She was unaware at the time, however, that he was looking at "suicide websites".
"I firmly believe that he would have found the strength to rebuild his life if he had found a different sort of suicide support."
Afterwards his widow spoke of her anguish and devastation at the way her husband had been driven to suicide. She said she had printed out and passed on all the emails to the police who were examining them to see whether there was a case to prosecute.
"If these had been handwritten and sent through the post the people responsible would have been brought up before a court," she said.
"But these emails came from all over the place, one was from Germany, which makes things much more difficult." She said she believed the malicious emails which wrecked her husband's business had been instigated by a rival who had previously vowed to destroy it.
She added that despite the unfounded nature of the rumours, which she would not repeat, they had led to a number of sponsors withdrawing their support.
Her husband had been renowned for his research into Second World War wrecks and was known as a wreck hunter and underwater videographer.
She said she felt he was on the brink of becoming even more successful after clinching a lucrative contract to train divers in the Red Sea, which was subsequently lost.
"I have been left absolutely devastated by his death. Discovering those emails and learning the truth of what happened was sickening."
