A teenager in the United States has taken his own life a day after two classmates secretly recorded him having sex with a man and broadcast it over the internet.
Tyler Clementi (18), a student at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, jumped from the George Washington Bridge last week, said his family’s lawyer, Paul Mainardi. Police recovered his body in the Hudson River.
Two Rutgers students have been charged with illegally taping Mr Clementi having sex and broadcasting the images via an internet chat programme.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of gay rights group Garden State Equality, said his group considered Mr Clementi’s death a hate crime.
“We are heartbroken over the tragic loss of a young man who, by all accounts, was brilliant, talented and kind,” Mr Goldstein said. “And we are sickened that anyone in our society, such as the students allegedly responsible for making the surreptitious video, might consider destroying others’ lives as a sport.”
One of the defendants, Dharun Ravi, was Mr Clementi's roommate, Mr Mainardi told the Star-Ledger paper of Newark. The other defendant is Molly Wei.
The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office charged the pair, both 18, with two counts each of invasion of privacy, claiming they used the webcam to view and transmit a live image of Mr Clementi on September 19th.
Mr Ravi was also charged with two more counts of invasion of privacy alleging he tried to transmit another encounter of Mr Clementi on September 21st.
PA