British man jailed for encouraging US suicide on Discord

A British man has been sentenced to six years and four months in prison for encouraging the suicide of a vulnerable 21-year-old American man during an online video call. Dylan Phelan, 21, from Morley, West Yorkshire, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Friday, June 12, 2026, after pleading guilty to intentionally encouraging the suicide of Travis Dyer in Louisiana on October 30, 2024.

The court heard that Phelan and two other individuals based in the United States, identified only as "Mads" and "Rob," participated in a video call on the Discord platform during which they repeatedly urged Dyer to shoot himself with a shotgun. Prosecutors stated Phelan did not merely witness the event but deliberately and persistently goaded the victim, laughing when Dyer finally took his own life. Phelan later kept a recording of the suicide on his computer.

The pair had been communicating for several months prior to the incident on Discord, where Dyer was known to be struggling with his mental health. The court was told Dyer had experienced significant personal tragedy, having lost his mother and sister years earlier. Judge Barry Cotter described Phelan's actions as a "campaign of cruelty"...