Man from Loughborough jailed for urging vulnerable woman to take her own life
Tyler Webb became the first person in the country to be charged with encouraging serious self-harm under a new law
Last updated 4th Jul 2025
A 22-year-old man from Loughborough's been jailed for 9 years and 4 months for urging a vulnerable woman to take her own life - Subject to a hospital order.
Leicester Crown Court heard today (4/7) how Tyler Webb used an online mental health forum to repeatedly tell his victim to end her life during weeks of what she called "calculated psychological violence" because he wanted to watch her die on a video call.
Webb admitted in May this year to encouraging suicide and encouraging or assisting someone to seriously self-harm when he appeared in court via video link from a mental health facility.
He is the first person in the country to be charged with encouraging serious self-harm online under Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023.
Handing Webb the hybrid order, means he will begin his sentence in hospital until he is deemed fit for prison.
Judge Timothy Spencer KC agreed that "very largely" Webb was motivated by sexual gratification.
He said: "Your persuasion extended over a substantial period of time. The two of you were not in any sort of suicide pact - it was always you hang yourself for my pleasure."
Webb, sat in the dock with his head bowed down and hands clasped over his ears before hiding underneath his chair, where he remained for most of the hearing.
He did not respond when asked to confirm his name.
Prosecutor Louise Oakley said the woman, who cannot be named, met Webb on a Reddit forum where people shared mental health support, before the pair started video calling on the Telegram app where they would have conversations which were "dark in nature".
Ms Oakley told the court that when Webb encouraged her to harm herself, "in (the victim's) words, he loved it. Tyler Webb told her it turned him on".
Telling the court about Webb urging the woman to kill herself, Ms Oakley said:
"He told her he wanted her to do it during a video call so he could watch. He would berate her and say she had nothing to live for and she should die."
The court also heard on one occasion Webb watched the woman attempt suicide by hanging, and when it failed he told her to try again.
The woman contacted the police on July 3 last year because she feared Webb would encourage someone else to harm themselves after he asked her to "sacrifice" herself, and he was arrested a week later.
The Defence barrister Joey Kwong said Webb was in a "dark time" with his mental health and "wrongly he adopted such warped behaviour and distorted thinking" from material he saw online.
The court heard the defendant has been diagnosed with mental health disorders including autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and anxiety and depressive disorders, which have a "significant impact on his life".
Dr Ajith Gurusinghe, a treating clinician for Webb who has been in hospital because he is "unable to cope in the prison regime", told the court the defendant has "shown some remorse but not completely".
Webb was also made subject of a restraining order during the hearing.
In a victim impact statement read aloud to the court by Ms Oakley, the woman wrote: "I don't want to call this encouraging serious self-harm or suicide, I want to call this what it is - an attempted murder through psychological means.
"I'm alive, but the life I have left is altered forever. My life is ruined - my mind and body have been severely damaged."
For anyone wanting support, the Samaritans can be contacted anonymously on 116123 or email [email protected].