A ROMANIAN criminal tried to blackmail friends of Ronan Hughes after the Tyrone teenager had already taken his own life, it has emerged.
Iulian Enache posed as `Emily Magee' to trick the 17-year-old into posting embarrassing images online and then tortured him with a stream of aggressive demands for thousands of pounds, threatening to send them to "all your friends and all the people you know".
When Ronan, from Clonoe near Coalisland, did not pay up in the digital currency Bitcoin, Enache (32) sent pictures to five friends demanding money, warning them that the popular young GAA player was considering suicide.
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"If you are really a friend of Ronan, then you will try to help him not be successful," he wrote.
"If you and your friends cannot raise this sum, or if your parents alone or with you cannot do that, I will send those videos to all of my friends on Facebook, teachers and not only, and it will be your responsibility."
He did not know that by the time some of these messages arrived in June 2015, the schoolboy was already dead.
PSNI officer Tim Mairs discusses the conviction and sentencing of Iulian Enache
Details of the pressure being put on Ronan by the ruthless blackmailer are contained in transcripts of Skype communications provided to Romania's Directorate for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism.
At one point the pupil at St Joseph's Grammar School, Donaghmore pleads with his tormentor: "I'm only 17 years old, please, I beg".
Enache told him to confess to his mother and ask her for the money, all the while ratcheting up tension with an ominous countdown:
"You have 48 hours from now. The time is running out. Now you have: 47 hours and 59 minutes."
The distraught teenager was also warned: "Do not try any stupidity, you'll only make things worse."
A frightened Ronan confided in his parents who helped him report it to police, who advised him to "ignore" the blackmail.
But after learning that Enache had sent images to his friends, Ronan took his own life.
Enache was sentenced to four years in jail but will be eligible for release in 2019.
Any child affected by these issues can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or Lifeline on 0808 808 8000
