More than 700 people in the UK have posted on a pro-suicide website looking for someone to die with, a BBC investigation has found. The site, which we are not naming, has a members-only section where users can look for a suicide partner.
We have connected several double suicides to the “partners thread”. Our investigation also found that predators have used the site to target vulnerable women. In December 2019, Angela Stevens’ 28-year-old son, Brett, travelled from his home in the Midlands to Scotland to meet a woman he had made contact with on the partners thread.
The pair rented an Airbnb and took their lives together. I miss everything about Brett, his smile, his infectious laugh,” Angela says. Since her son’s death, she has spent years researching the pro-suicide site – in particular, the partners thread.
“It’s a very dangerous place,” Angela says. She compares it to a dark version of a dating app. Where else would you go to find a partner to take your own life with?” she says. “It’s just absolutely vile. The thread encourages users to end their own lives – and offers instructions on how to do it. Our analysis found more than 5,000 posts on the thread by people from around the world.
We are not naming the site or giving details about methods of suicide recommended there. A BBC investigation in March found more than 130 British people may have ended their own lives after using a chemical promoted by the site.
Source: BBC
In other news – Typical household energy bill up £149 a year in October
A typical household’s annual energy bill will rise by £149 in October under the new price cap. People using an average amount of gas and electricity will pay £1,717 a year, a 10% rise compared with now.
The cap, set by the energy regulator Ofgem, affects the price paid for each unit of gas and electricity used in 27 million homes in England, Wales and Scotland. Read more
