A 21-year-old man from Leeds has been sentenced to over six years in prison for encouraging a US citizen to take his own life during a video call. Dylan Phelan pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to intentionally doing an act capable of encouraging suicide.
In October 2024, Travis Dyer, 21, from Louisiana, died by suicide while on a call with Phelan and two other men. The group were members of a private Discord server called 'Recovery4all', which was ostensibly for mental health support but was used to taunt and worsen Dyer's mental state.
Sentencing Phelan, Judge Barry Cotter said he had indulged his 'morbid curiosity' and shown 'no respect for the life of Travis Dyer'. The prosecution described a 'campaign of cruelty' in which Dyer was groomed into ending his life, with Phelan heard on the recorded call telling him to 'pull the trigger' and laughing.
The court heard that Dyer had suffered significant personal hardships, including the deaths of his mother and sister by drowning, and had sought support from the group. Instead, Phelan and the others persuaded him to carve their initials into his skin and spend his money on drugs and alcohol.
Phelan also admitted three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images and one count of making an indecent image of a child. He was sentenced to six years and four months in prison and made subject to a ten-year sexual harm prevention order.
