4 hours ago
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Alex Mossat Leeds Crown Court
Family/Samart funeral home
Travis Dyer, who lived in Louisiana, took his own life in October 2024
A British man has admitted encouraging a "vulnerable" 21-year-old US citizen to kill himself while on a video call.
Dylan Phelan, 21, from Morley, appeared at Leeds Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to encouraging the suicide of Travis Dyer in Louisiana.
The court was told that Phelan, "together with others on 30 October 2024, did an act capable of encouraging the suicide of another person".
Judge Robin Mairs adjourned the case for sentencing on 22 May and told Phelan to "prepare yourself for custody".
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Phelan had been communicating with Mr Dyer, who was known to be vulnerable and struggling with his mental health, for several months online.
The CPS said in March last year Phelan attended a police station in Leeds with his parents and told officers he had taken part in a video call, alongside two other people based in the US, during which Dyer was encouraged to kill himself.
Examination of his mobile phone also revealed possession of an indecent image of a child and other extreme pornography images, a CPS spokesperson said.
Phelan was released on bail with the condition that he is not allowed to have a device capable of accessing the internet.
The court heard the sentencing hearing would take place in the afternoon so Dyer's family could attend by video-link.
The judge told Phelan: "Do not take the fact that I am granting you bail and allowing the preparation of these (pre-sentence and mental health) reports as any indication as to what sentence will be on May 22, and prepare yourself for custody."
At a court hearing last month, Phelan pleaded guilty to one count of making an indecent image of a child in November 2024 and three counts of possessing extreme pornography in March 2025.
Dyer lived in Theriot, Louisiana, and lost his mother and younger sister in a crash 10 years before his own death.
In August 2014, local newspaper Houma Today reported Ashley Ann Worrell, 31, and her three-year-old daughter Delaney Rae Lirette died after their pick-up overturned into a canal.
An obituary posted on a funeral home website after Dyer's death said he was "sweet, gentle, quiet, kind and very caring to those he loved".
It read: "Travis will forever be loved and terribly missed by all of those who have known him."
A tribute posted by his great-grandmother said: "Travie, We miss you. Needless to say, I'm so beside myself. I don't know what to say or how to say it.
"Sweetheart, you were so unfortunate to have had so many tragedies in your young life. It was totally unfair for you."
Alex Johnson, senior specialist prosecutor in the CPS Special Crime Division, said: "This was a deeply disturbing case involving the exploitation of a vulnerable young man through an online platform.
"Dylan Phelan did not merely witness what happened - he actively participated in goading Travis Dyer to take his own life, intending that he would do so.
"Online spaces are not beyond the reach of the law. Encouraging self-harm or suicide, whether in person or through digital platforms, is a serious criminal offence."
