14yr old boy found murdered after being groomed through computer games...
 

The 14-year-old son of a U.S. oil millionaire was allegedly stabbed to death after being groomed over the internet while playing computer games.

Breck Bednar apparently told his parents that he was going to a friend's house for a sleepover close to his home in Caterham, Surrey.

But instead he got the train and travelled 30 miles to Grays, Essex, where he was found with knife wounds on Monday morning. He later died despite attempts to save him.

Today Lewis Daynes, an 18-year-old computer engineer, appeared before a court charged with murdering the schoolboy.

Breck's father Barry, 49, who is an oil futures trader, described his son as a 'happy, gentle and smart boy'.

Mr Bednar, from Houston, has worked as a managing director for BCG shipping brokers in Canary Wharf.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he currently works as a partner for Tandem Partners SARL.

The millionaire, who lives with his son's mother Lorin LaFave, 49, said that his son had recently been on a ten-day trip to Spain.

Ms LaFave is a Michigan State University graduate who regularly attends an evangelist church near her home.

Paying tribute to his son, Mr Bednar told the Evening Standard: 'I last saw him on Sunday. He was a happy, gentle and smart boy. He had been in Spain for 10 days and he was excited to see us and be home again.'

The schoolboy's mother Lorin said today: ' Breck was a clever, good and helpful boy. Like most teenagers, socialising, computers and games were what he enjoyed.

'The problem was the predator who was trying to control his ideology about religion, government, family, education.

looked up to him because of his interesting manner and computer skills.'

She added: 'Breck may have been shy when we saw cousins over three years ago, however he is actually very calm, clever and confident young man. Unfortunately Too confident and independent to believe my warnings.'

The schoolboy is understood to have been a keen player of the videogame Battlefield 4

According to a message on the content sharing website Imgur, the 14-year-old was a socially awkward teenager 'addicted' to video games who had stopped going to church and turned against his parents.


The post entitled: 'A sad story about internet predators from a long time lurker' said Breck turned to the internet as a way of dealing with his social awkwardness

It claimed Breck was an 'incredibly smart, funny, and cute 14 year old boy..'


'Despite this it was very difficult for him (Breck) to make friends and he would often avoid social interaction.

'So, like myself and many others he turned to his computer and the internet for entertainment.


'He loved to play video games and may have even been a bit addicted to them (I can relate). He ended up meeting someone who he thought wanted to be his friend

'This person wasn't another 14 year old boy, but a man. Not having very many friends, if any, Breck immediately attached to this relationship.


'Soon, the man began telling him that his parents hated him, and that God isn't real, and that he shouldn't go to church. Breck became distant, stopped going to church and quit his extracurricular altogether. His family was concerned, but didn't think much of it.

'They tried talking to him and helping him to no avail.


'Two nights ago, Breck told his father that he was going to his friend's house for a sleep over a couple of blocks away.


'He ended up taking a train down to Essex, about two hours away.


'Early the next morning, the police found his body.'


However, other friends of Breck denied he was 'socially awkward' with few friends.


School friends from St Bede's ecumenical school in Redhill suggested various memorials for the dead boy, including a bench or planting a tree.


Edward Ashby said: 'RIP Breck Bednar. I only knew you for a term and a half, but as we had every lesson together you became one of my best friends.

'Words cannot describe how sad I am feeling and I hope you have gone to a better place. My thoughts are with you and your family.'

Jess Runge posted: 'such a lovely innocent boy. Thoughts to Breck and his family, made me giggle since primary school, forever in our hearts RIP.'

Samuel McCarthy-King added: 'Rip Buddy I will always remember the good times we had playing iphone games and eating pizza.

'It was a great honour to be your friend mate. Love you man I will be always thinking about you'.

Molly Nicholason wrote: 'RIP Breck. Your tragic loss will affect everyone, some more than others. Either way, our year is like a family and yesterday we lost a family member. You’re up there with the angels now Breck, where no one can hurt you.

Aimee Baker posted: 'RIP Breck you will be missed in form and it wont be the same my thoughts go out to all your family and close friends xx

'Although everyone is being nice coming up with good ideas to remember Breck I don’t think anything should happen before we get back to school, I know a lot of the boys in my form and the other people who were close to him will be upset. So I think we should just wait a bit before everyone rushes into things x.'

In a statement Christopher Curtis, Headteacher of St Bede’s School, a Christian school in Redhill, said: 'We were devastated to hear the awful news about Breck Bednar, a student in Year 10

'Breck was a bright and hard working student who was a real pleasure to teach. His tutor describes him as "a model student: a conscientious young man with a great deal of potential".

'We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss and our thoughts and prayers are with his family, his friends and with all affected.'

Today Daynes stood in the dock at Basildon Magistrates Court in Essex as he appeared before a judge charged with murder.


The young man was wearing a bright red standard issue sweatshirt and bottoms as he stood in the dock flanked by two uniformed dock officers.


He spoke only to confirm his name, age and address during the hearing.

The clerk told the court: 'Mr Daynes appears before the court on one charge, an allegation of murder. It needs to be dealt with by the Crown Court, it will go to Chelmsford Crown Court.'

Daynes was remanded in custody and will appear at Chelmsford Crown Court tomorrow morning at 9.30am.

A plea and case management hearing is due to be held at Chelmsford Crown Court on 28 April.

His defence barrister David Barbone told the court that he will not be making a bail application at tomorrow's court hearing.

The preliminary results from the post mortem examination indicate that Bednar died as a result of a wound to the neck.

His family are being supported by police family liaison officers



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ter-games.html

That's awful, poor kid :(

:bawling: he was one of my daughters form pupils.

She is absolutely devastated.
She found out that one of them had been murdered but did not know who at first.

...awwww Smudgie, how awful for her..:hug:...

Oh Smudgie that's awful :(

Poor kid... never trust who people say they are on the internet (unless you've seen them lip synch to Amy Winehouse in drag, in which case you know Shaun is a real person)

Yes, she was beside herself yesterday.
She had gone into school to do some work and heard it over the caretakers walkie talkie. Most upset.

Teachers aren't prepared for stuff like this... obviously nobody is, his family must be devastated, but as a class teacher, especially a form teacher, you get to know kids and their friendships and how your class interacts with one another so for somebody to suddenly no longer be there must be very shocking and hard to deal with... and she can't even really deal with it herself because she'll have to deal with all the other kids in the class and their reactions to his death... your poor daughter!

This was imgur yesterday, well, the story was without many details, the cousin of Brek posted what had happened as a warning about internet predators on there but I can't find it now

edit: Ah, it seems to have been taken down from there

Aw that is terrible.poor boy,and smudgie hope your daughter is ok.

..no you’re right, Zee..teachers aren’t prepared to deal with stuff like this at all but most schools/colleges do have student councillors as well who can help, there have unfortunately been several student deaths at our local upper school ..car accidents/illnesses...and some of them I’ve personally known as have my boys and actually I think the biggest thing that does help is that it’s a grief that’s felt by all of the students... and Smudgie’s daughter’s friends will probably be one of the biggest comfort to her right now and I think being around them will help her a lot...

She will be fine Kaz, just such a shock for her.
That poor lad and his family. Truly awful.

Title should be

Well not really, he was groomed online...

Poor kid, what a sicko! Smudgie I can't imagine how devastated your daughter is, teen years are meant to be so happy and carefree...

:(

just awful.

poor little feller. :(

hope they find the guy that did it and hang him from the nearest post.

This is terrible. Poor kid. Parents need to be more vigilant about these things. The internet can be very dangerous. :(

Man charged over death of 14-year-old in Essex


http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...h-killer-essex

..he's only 18yrs old as well..

must be why they took the imgur story down

there were also suggestions the killer could have had social/mental problems himself

ugh, that means he's got a long life full of killing left in him if we don't deal with it now. hopefully this is his first murder, he could have been a serial killer if we don't deal with him now.

..hopefully this will raise awareness in Safeguarding online..it always staggers me when we hold an information evening, just how few parents attend these things and I would think that the scenario of what happened to Breck isn't that different to the ones that they show on the Safeguarding videos...

:( really sad

..obviously we don't know much yet, Alex but I would guess that it's quite probable that he suffers a mental illness...

ah no, that's terrible Smudgie :hug:

yea, i think it's fair to assume that he has a mental illness.

Yes, this rare incident surely confirms that we must spy on our 14 year olds social activities at all times, block all websites except Wikipedia and YouTube (but only the clean videos) and also I think it would be prudent to hide GPS trackers in their shoes. Or maybe under the skin, as shoes might be removed.

We also need to see significant investment in cotton wool production facilities, as currently there is simply not enough to meet the ever-increasing requirements.

... Seriously ... As tragic as this incident is, it does not justify (further) limits on the freedom and privacy of teenagers. Leave them alone!

A little bit of light at the end of this tunnel.
The murderer decIded at the very last minute to plead guilty.
Daughter and kids were due at the courts today, not heard from her yet but it was on the lunchtime news.

Hopefully his school friends can now move forward from this horrendous episode.

Yes he pleaded Guilty
as he knew he would be found Guilty


Evil Killer

Louis Danes looks like Jack O'connell.

I'm glad he changed his plea smudgie, those who knew and loved him can be spared the pain of a lengthy trial. Hopefully there will be more awareness raised on the dangers of internet grooming following this so other families are spared this heartache.

I think that hopefully we will start to see less of this sort of thing happening in generations to come. It is a huge problem. I've been online since I was 13 and I've encountered all sorts of absolute freaks, and even had what I can only assume were "grooming attempts" of sorts myself. One was a young attractive female... RAGING NEO-NAZI... Who was constantly trying to turn me into a white supremacist. Another was a guy in his 20's who popped on and off a forum I was on, who seemed to genuinely believe that he was "a demon" and was always trying to get teenagers to essentially come and live with him in some sort of cult. I thought he was full of **** until a girl I talked to from that forum actually went to his house (the idiot) and apparently it genuinely was full of young, gothy teenagers (mostly girls) who basically worshipped this guy. She left, quickly. Terrifying.

Anyway, basically these attempts seem to be very common and Banning kids from the Internet or monitoring constantly is impossible. I think it'll hopefully be less of an issue in future as my generation and beyond as parents will have "grown up online" and will be able to better prepare our own children for what to expect and how to keep safe online. A huge part of the problem at the moment is that, for many parents of teenagers, the online world is completely alien to them and they have no real understanding of the bonds and friendships that can form (most completely genuine, a tragic few very sinister).

'Yes, this rare incident surely confirms that we must spy on our 14 year olds social activities at all times'

'Anyway, basically these attempts seem to be very common and Banning kids from the Internet or monitoring constantly is impossible.'

You just totally contradicted yourself.. :/

Didn't :/. The incident (it ending in violence / death) IS rare, and I was obviously being sarcastic when I said in that first post that we should be spying. In the second post I said that ATTEMPTS by dodgy people to contact or influence young people are fairly common. My point in both posts is that we shouldn't / can't monitor or restrict our young people because of rare occurrences of violence, and then that as the adult world becomes more tech literate, we will hopefully be able to pass on the social skills for kids to deal with and understand the situations they might encounter and how to stay safe WITHOUT someone constantly looking over their shoulder.

I don't see the contradiction.

Nope again that makes no sense,it the attempts to contact are common how does that equate that the incidences of violence are rare?

12,431 children contacted childline last year due to online grooming.

Sexual abuse and
online sexual abuse
Young person has been
persuaded/forced by an adult/
older person to take part in
sexual activities, or encouraged
to behave in a sexually
inappropriate way. Includes online
sexual abuse such as exposure
to sexually explicit images,
grooming, sexting etc.

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets...-2012-2013.pdf

Of course it makes sense - very few of the attempts result in an actual assault and obviously any that end in murder are rare enough to be front page news i.e. Exceptional circumstances.

My point is and has always been that if young people / teens are suitably prepared and skeptical in their "online encounters", know not to give out personal details, know that if someone won't chat on Web Cam then they're potentially not who or what they say they are, know (for later teens, 16+) only ever to meet someone in public and with a group... All of the things that the "net generation" has learned through experience, then it shouldn't be too difficult for most people to keep themselves safe.

In other words I think it should be perfectly possible to arm adolescents with the skills to navigate their online encounters safely on their own rather than wrap them in cotton wool and try to ensure that they don't have those encounters at all. That's what these sorts of stories prompt a lot of people to want to do - monitor, supervise, censor... And that's exactly what leads to kids "getting sneaky" and taking risks, getting themselves into bad situations without anyone knowing.