A 31-year-old man has been charged in Romania in connection with the webcam blackmail of Co Tyrone teenager Ronan Hughes who died in June, 2015.
He appeared at Bucharest Municipal Court, Roman, charged with producing and distributing indececent images of children and blackmail. He's currently in custody.
Mr Hughes (17) from Coalisland took his own life after being tricked into posting private images of himself on social media via a webcam.
The death of the popular young GAA player, who was a pupil at St Joseph's Grammar school in Donaghmore, shocked his community.
It was previously reported that before his death, Mr Hughes had told his parents about his being cyber-bullied and had made a complaint to the police.
At the time of his death, parish priest Fr Benny Fee said the close-knit rural community had been left stunned and blamed "faceless individuals" for intimidating the teenager.
"He did not take his own life," added Mr Fee. "His life was taken by these faceless people who put the child into a burning building that he felt he could not escape."
PSNI detectives are currently in Romania assisting their Romanian counterparts.
Detective Superintendent Gary Reid, from the PSNI's Reactive and Organised Crime Branch, said: “This has been complex and protracted and we are grateful to our colleagues in our partner agencies for their assistance to date.
“As legal proceedings are now ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.
“However, I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone in Northern Ireland to be mindful of their online activity, particularly with strangers. If you feel you have been compromised online in anyway, please report it to police on 101 or 999 in an emergency.
“We understand the level of media interest in this development however we are in close contact with the Hughes family and they have asked us to remind all media that they do not wish to be contacted at this time. I would ask you to respect their wishes.”
PSNI have been liaising with a number of agencies in a variety of jurisdictions, including Policia Româna (Romanian Police), the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism in Romania, the National Crime Agency, and Europol, as part of the investigation.
Any child affected by these issues can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or Lifeline on 0808 808 8000
