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WhatsApp icon: The messages were only found months later
Photo: Patrick Sison/ AP
An online stalker has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Spain after his 17-year-old victim committed suicide.
The sentence was announced on Tuesday evening by the responsible district court in Castellón de la Plana in the east of the country.
Accordingly, the man must pay the parents and the brother of the young person financial compensation totaling 173,000 euros.
The accused was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury in July.
The public prosecutor's office had demanded 14 years' imprisonment.
The ruling was seen by Spanish media commentators as a game changer in the fight against online harassment and cybercrime.
It was a precedent, it said.
"This conviction opens up the possibility of holding stalkers directly responsible for the suicide or attempted suicide of their victims," commented the television station Antena 3.
119 messages in less than three hours
At the end of 2016, the convict sent the young person "in less than three hours at least 119 messages with intimidating and threatening content" via WhatsApp, the district court said.
Although the victim repeatedly apologized to him for visiting an adult site and wrote that he was a minor and would take his own life, the man continued to threaten and abuse him.
He was aware of the fear and discomfort of his chat partner.
On the day of the flood of chat messages, December 1, 2016, the 17-year-old jumped from his parents' apartment in Villarreal into the courtyard and died.
According to the newspaper »El País«, it took eight months before the news like »I'll get you.
I will ruin your parents because of you" were spotted on the teenager's cell phone.
He and the stalker, who is more than 40 years his senior, are said to have come into contact via a dating portal.
According to the investigation, they never met in person.
However, the man already had a criminal record for sexual assault in 2004, writes »El País«.
According to media reports, the now 62-year-old denied most of the allegations in court.
The Spanish judiciary announced that an appeal could be lodged against the judgment at the Higher Regional Court of the Region of Valencia.
The convict's lawyer told the media that he would exercise this right.
mbo/dpa