Murder Games: The Life and Death of Breck Bednar

This programme contains some strong language and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

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A teenager who stabbed to death a 14-year-old boy he met

while playing online video games...

Lewis Daynes stabbed Breck Bednar

after grooming him via internet gaming...

-He befriended Breck Bednar online...

-'Then groomed him...'

'Grooming him online...'

'..Other adolescents, before luring him to his death...'

On February 17, 2014,

Surrey schoolboy Breck Bednar was lured to his death.

I am thankful for this Thanksgiving meal,

because it is definitely the best I've ever had.

14-year-old Breck was a talented gamer.

He had been groomed online for nearly a year by someone

he thought was his best friend.

'Lewis Daynes stabbed Breck Bednar at his flat in Grays

'after grooming him via internet...'

SHE SNIFFS

'Breck would have never thought he was being groomed.'

He just thought that they hit it off as friends.

'Why Breck?

'There was a group of six - why was Breck the one who fell for it?'

I don't know, I sometimes think, "Breck, why did you do this?"

You know. "Come on!"

For the first time, five of Breck's closest friends have agreed

to speak about what went so wrong within their gaming group.

If there is anything you're not comfortable with,

just tell us to stop.

These campaigns in school we see all the time, like Stranger Danger,

but it wasn't really like anything you see at school before.

Yet we all sort of...

..fell into it. Into the trap.

Told through real-life testimony and drama,

this is the story of how an innocent gamer became

the victim of cold-blooded murder,

and what led a teenager from Essex to kill someone he had never met.

'And who am I speaking to?'

My name is Lewis Daynes, I'm 18 years old.

Hi, Brecky.

We put up our Christmas tree at home, sweetie.

We needed you to do the lights.

It was a bit of a disaster.

This will be Lorin's first Christmas without her eldest son, Breck.

I miss you so much, sweetheart.

It's hard for Mummy to have fun in the holidays,

or any time, without you.

'Breck was killed on our mum's birthday.'

Just one day, out of the blue,

he just went on a sleepover and never came back.

That's Breck.

There is me, Carly and Chloe.

The story of what happened to their older brother would send

shock waves through the gaming community.

One morning in February 2014,

without telling anybody,

14-year-old Breck got into a taxi to travel 30 miles to Essex.

He was never seen alive again.

Looking at this photo, it captures what he loves in one photo.

You know, he's on the computer and he's smiling.

'I remember him being joyous and sort of always laughing and happy.

'Me and Breck had the same interests, we sat next to each other

'in form as well, we had the same sense of humour, I guess.'

I wouldn't say immaturity, but I'd say pretty close to it.

Just sort of making jokes out of everything

and laughing all the time.

CHATTER

I'm doing maths, physics, history

and I haven't decided on my last one yet.

'Breck was an A star student.'

He was doing triple science, further maths,

he was top set for everything.

'Really nice person, Breck, yeah. He got on with everyone.'

SCHOOL BELL RINGS

Every day after school,

like thousands of other teenagers across the country,

Breck and his friends would go home to meet up in their virtual world,

on the best gaming server they'd ever come across.

I first met Breck because I invited some other boys onto the server,

who were friends with Breck,

'um, and they in turn invited Breck on.'

'I think at first, we met through Minecraft.'

Liam put to me that they were on this server

and it would be cool if I joined them.

'Breck introduced me to the server.'

Yeah, we were all good friends. Good fun for everyone.

Get on when we got home, just sort of start talking.

-Hello.

-Hi.

I'm joining now.

What are you guys playing?

Like having your mates over.

Are you ready for this?

I guess. What are you guys up to?

Well, we're playing Rust.

-Oh, isn't that just brilliant?! Can I join?

-Yeah, sure.

Who is in the channel at the moment?

I first saw TeamSpeak, I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

Breck was so proud of showing me -

"This is how it works, this is what it does."

And having all those friends speaking to him in real-time

and they were sharing video clips and playing games,

it was like they were in a clubhouse.

A virtual clubhouse.

I just want to hit you on the head with this rock. Come on.

Come here! I'm going to hit you! There you go.

Why are you... What?!

I think at the time, we majorly played Battlefield 3,

I know it was a favourite with Breck.

I guess it's boys and guns, something like that.

Breck was probably the best shooter. It was just the way he'd do it.

It was just a way to escape, really, it was quite exciting.

I need to do more. Let's go, then.

I think you could sort of, like, smuggle drugs

or, like, be a police officer...

If we felt like it, just become a crooked cop and just abuse the law.

Just hit you with a flaming torch! Whoa!

This sort of exciting criminal world.

And then, like, log off and have fish fingers and chips for tea!

The owner of their favourite server

was someone none of the boys had ever met -

17-year-old computer whiz Lewis Daynes.

He made it quite clear that he owned the server and ran things,

but there was no, like, formal introduction or anything,

it was just...

Hi, I'm Lewis.

'Lewis was very inviting.'

You know, he allowed everyone on, there wasn't a password...

Breck.

So, whereabouts are you?

At the turret, sniping.

Hey, watch out.

-Quick, down!

-GUNFIRE

-No, no, no, left! Left! Look up left!

-OK, come on.

-Right, I'll cover you.

-HE LAUGHS

I'm getting shot at!

-So, go quicker, then!

-Cover me!

-I am, I am!

Get down, get down!

Someone behind you.

He was a few years older than us, so, he was sort of the, like,

mature one that everyone looked up to. We were only 13, 14.

GUNFIRE AND LAUGHING

Too easy, too easy.

He seemed to have quite a lot more experience in life

and in computers and stuff than any of us.

We were sort of, er, really in awe of his, like, technical ability,

to just do anything on the computer.

Me and Breck, we really liked coding and he would encourage us

to code and stuff like that.

Cover me, cover me, cover me! Too many people!

-Can you get down...?

-No, I can't...

One...

-two!

-EXPLOSION

-THEY LAUGH

-Yes!

Right through the eyes.

'You could always hear before you could see.'

And even though he had this big, deep voice, he'd be giggling away.

Teenage fun and games.

Breck would spend all of his money, his birthday money,

his Christmas money... on his computer stuff.

And he had three big screens. There was always something going on.

The centre usually was the gaming screen.

On the right was more interactive and things would pop up.

On the left was sort of his...

..message screen.

Right there was where I...

saw the avatar of Daynes, who wasn't Daynes.

-How was your day?

-It was good.

We went to see Mad Max in the cinema and we were the only two in there.

Oh!

OVERLAPPING CHATTER

Oh, my God!

-DAD:

-I think some of his friends were probably there just to play the games.

But Breck was very in tune with the technology that was going on.

Lewis Daynes was somebody that had skills or the wherewithal to

teach Breck something new about it and he was learning.

Hey, Breck! Hey Breck!

DAD LAUGHS

As a child he was always attracted to machines and electronics.

Two, one...

BRECK SHRIEKS WITH LAUGHTER

It doesn't matter how big it is.

'One of our big bonds, we built models, we built rockets.'

Yeah!

When he was three years old they called him a boy genius

because he was always fixing things.

As he got older

he kind of transferred those talents to computing.

He was able to fix and modify and make things happen,

and that was one of his big passions in life, was doing that.

-MATT:

-When Breck first got his computer, he built it.

He bought all the PSUs and graphics cards and motherboards and

stuff like that so that he could get the exact computer that he wanted.

-MUM:

-Oh, really?

-DAD:

-Yay!

-Wow!

Well done!

-MUM:

-Breck really looked up to Lewis as a mentor

because of Lewis being more knowledgeable about computers.

He just wanted to soak in every sort of ounce of information

that would help him in his career.

What Lorin didn't know was her son was gaming with a teenager

who spent his days prowling the internet

looking for young gamers to befriend.

Is anybody here?

In Breck, Lewis Daynes quickly detected someone

he could impress with his computer skills.

This server is the quickest one I've ever been on. It's so fast.

How do you do it all?

I run it at optimum level and my network is impenetrable.

Boom!

-So, where are you now?

-I'm in New York, Breck.

Wait, are you in New York now?

-Yeah! I'm knackered - I'm pulling an all-nighter.

-What, on this?

No, Breck, I do have a life.

Been testing security for the US government.

-You're a hacker.

-I can't say.

-That's all you're getting from me, I'm afraid.

-Oh, go on!

No, no, you don't know who might be picking up these communications online.

-By day I run a computer technology company.

-No way!

I'm also a computer engineer.

-Are you serious?

-Yes, deadly serious.

That's, like, my dream job.

While Lewis claimed to be running a computer company, he was really

unemployed, living alone in a flat in Essex, spinning a web of lies.

He had told me was part of a million-dollar company.

I've made over two million quid in Bitcoins.

-TOM:

-He told me he made about £2 million off this virtual currency.

That's what he said, and I believed him.

-Two million?!

-Mm.

-Really?

-Yeah, and I gave most of it away.

I was quite, like, you know, wow!

As a computer engineer, done work for the government there.

He was very private about his job and what he did.

He sort of kept this character of sort of mystery.

-It's top-secret government stuff, you know. Need-to-know basis.

-Go on.

No, Breck, that's all you're getting from me.

He had his own apartment at 18.

Rich, independent, job in computing, travelling round the world.

# URL badman. #

Everything that Lewis was saying was sort of Breck's ideal lifestyle.

If you've got any technical issues just give me a shout,

-I'll give you a hand.

-Yeah, definitely, nice one.

I would go into the room and Breck would say, "My mum's here."

Mum's here now.

The other boys would just go quiet, but Lewis was very confident

and would say, "Oh, hey, Mum, how are you doing?"

And I'd ask him, "What have you been doing? What do you like about New York?"

New York's great. I haven't been doing much, just working.

I'd say, "Why aren't you out with a girlfriend, a friend?"

Oh...I'm just staying in tonight.

A lot of times his answers would be vague.

I thought, why is a 17-going- on-18-year-old hanging out with

14-year-old boys Friday and Saturday nights online?

And I thought, what is wrong with this person

that he's not actually interacting with people his own age?

It seemed unusual

and it did put a sort of little niggle of worry in my mind.

Breck had only been part of Lewis's gaming group for a few months,

but some of the older boys were becoming suspicious.

What have you been up to this week?

'I talked to Lewis'

for about a year and a half,

quite a long time to go without actually meeting this person.

Everyone else was pretty open about their appearance.

We had pretty much everyone on Facebook.

We'd all connect through social media.

Lewis didn't have any social networking. Wouldn't share his face.

So we had no idea what he looked like.

-TOM:

-I had Breck round for a sleepover.

Skyped Lewis. Lewis's screen was almost pitch-black. It was...

You didn't really see much of Lewis.

There were no lights on in the rest of the room. He was...

pretty much silhouetted.

I thought it was a little bit weird.

I didn't really expect, you know,

him to sort of skulk away in the shadows, because, you know,

he sounded like he lived this glamorous lifestyle

and you'd think he, you know, would be more confident.

Lewis had every reason to hide.

He'd already built up a large network of young gamers

in an attempt to groom one of them.

GUNFIRE IN GAME

Breck, with his passion for computer programming,

was becoming a promising target.

-Shoot him in the face!

-I'm trying, Breck, I'm trying!

GUNFIRE

Blowing this place to shit.

-I've been meaning to ask you...

-Mm-hm?

I want to try out a mod and I was wondering if you could,

like, chuck up a server so we could try it out.

-Oh, yeah, I just got this server in Germany.

-Oh, really?

-Mm.

I mean, I'm kind of using it for work, testing things.

How much space do you need?

Like, 60 gig, but obviously it has to be really fast.

Of course it's fast, it's mine, Breck! What's the mod?

It's just some graphical mod I've been working on.

I forgot you were a bit of a smart arse.

Well, hardly managing my own multimillion-pound company yet, but...

-You want to start thinking about it, Breck.

-Yeah, right! 14.

-So?

I was hacking my school's internet at 14.

-LIAM:

-Lewis sort of gave him this confidence.

"You're a bright guy, you're really intelligent,

"you're good at computing."

Just played into everything Breck wanted to hear.

You've got a very bright future ahead of you.

You have so much potential. Your knowledge of computer systems

is extensive. Use that, Breck, to your advantage.

You're a very intelligent young man.

-Listen, Breck, I need to dash. I've got things to get to.

-Thanks.

-Speak to you later, yeah?

-Yeah, cool.

Good morning! Do you know what your kids are up to online?

Since Breck's murder, his mother Lorin has spoken publicly to raise

awareness of the dangers of online grooming.

A tweet here from John - "The buck stops with parents."

What would you say to that?

I thought Breck was safe in his bedroom,

where I could hear what he was saying, see what he was doing.

But I didn't realise, you know, until too late how dangerous it was.

Lewis wanted Breck 24/7 on that computer.

Well, if I asked him, "Why does Lewis not have other friends?

"Why is he always available for gaming?"

And he'd say, "Oh, it's because it's what he likes to do."

Or, "His friends have moved away."

I didn't feel like Breck would ever say, "Yeah, that is weird, Mum."

Breck never said that.

Breck would never know he was being groomed,

because it's so subtle and it's not always sexual.

It can sometimes just be a lot of... compliments, a lot of attention.

-CHLOE:

-Well, I just thought of it as he was,

like, having fun with his friends.

It didn't seem that dangerous.

If... It would only seem dangerous

if, like, he didn't know them

and they weren't his friends.

You know, you start to trust people online, but, you know,

you have to think that maybe they have some underlying motive.

After six months, Lewis was winning Breck's trust.

He now encouraged Breck to speak to him on a private channel,

so his friends couldn't hear how he was being manipulated.

I think you're making a stupid mistake

sticking around with school and university.

Don't limit yourself with social conventions.

Because there's a bigger picture for you here, Breck.

I don't know, I always just thought I'd go to uni, I suppose.

You actually buy into that crap, Breck?

-What, education?

-Yeah, Pythagoras, geometry - what's that about?

What's the point in GCSEs?

So what, you end up with a certificate

at the end of the three years?

Pathetic.

What about life experience, practically doing the work?

That's what you need. I mean, look at me.

I left school at 16 and now I'm running my own company.

Yeah, yeah, like, now you mention it...

like, Steve Jobs just left college, didn't he, to set up Apple?

And then Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard,

and now look at Facebook.

Exactly.

Yeah. So you know, Breck, you could follow in their footsteps.

Yeah, you understand about computing and coding, how it works.

You've got technical aptitude.

You know, it's like your brain is wired the right way.

-Do you think so?

-Yeah.

You use that, Breck, to your advantage

and you'll end up with two million Bitcoins like me.

Two million - think of what you could do with that.

Yeah, and don't get me started on church. Who needs that?

-LIAM:

-There were a lot of things that he didn't like about our lifestyle.

He didn't like us reading mainstream news channels

because he felt like they were lying or distorting the truth.

He was definitely trying to change perceptions on multiple levels.

He painted himself as quite a sort of liberal, I guess,

freedom fighter.

GUNFIRE

What about them poor sods in Syria

being bombed to shit?

I'm thinking of going out there, Breck,

and fighting with the Syrian rebels.

EXPLOSION

-Wouldn't be the first time, though.

-What do you mean?

Well, I went out to Egypt a few years back,

fought with the Egyptian rebels.

He said he was going to go to Syria as an aid worker,

which I thought, "That's quite noble.

"Are you sure you want to do that, though?

"It's obviously really dangerous."

Then, you know, the morning he went out, I was like,

"Goodbye, good luck," etc.

Then he came back on a couple of hours later saying, "Oh, no,

"the flight's been cancelled because there was a bomb in Baghdad."

I was like, "Oh, OK."

Lewis's lies were getting more far-fetched.

He was beginning to lose credibility with the older boys.

Everything he was saying wasn't really adding up.

He was a bit sort of...fantastical for reality, quite honestly.

I didn't really believe that he was in America.

By that point I was pretty sure he wasn't who he was saying he was.

You know nothing.

'So often I'd be a bit rude or a bit sarcastic'

and he didn't like that very much.

-Hey, dude, you poked?

-Yeah, they were annoying me.

-What happened to Liam?

-Booted him.

-That guy annoys me every day.

-How come?

-Spouting bollocks.

-He's just chatting about school.

That IS the bollocks! It's my server, I can do what I want.

-TOM:

-Lewis, at the end of the day, was the owner of the server,

so if someone started to annoy him quite a lot,

then he would just simply restrict access by banning them.

This isn't going to carry on.

I won't tell you again. Shut the fuck up.

-LIAM:

-It began to sort of feel like he was segregating everyone else

from Breck by arguing, pushing them away.

-MATT:

-We had quite a few conversations with Breck

and the conversations usually just involved,

"We're your real-life friends.

"Why are you sort of... focusing more on someone

"that you haven't actually met?"

-MAX:

-I disliked him and I didn't like the way he spoke to us,

and I told Breck that getting in with Lewis was a bad idea

because of the way he treated him and me and everyone.

Um...

But I didn't enforce it.

Lewis now told another lie

to ensure that Breck would no longer listen to his friends.

Listen, Breck, I've got some shit news.

What? I heard them bitching. I tapped into another channel. I...

I heard them talking about you, Breck.

What are you talking about?

Your friends.

They, er...

Well, they said they don't really like you.

Mate, in fact, they said they hate you.

I... Who said what?

Look, OK...

..it was Liam.

Liam?

Yeah.

Well, and Matt.

Yeah, Liam and Matt.

Forget about them, Breck, you don't need them any more.

They're not going to help your future,

they're just going to stop you from doing well.

We've got that bond, Breck,

and that's all that matters, our friendship.

You don't need them any more, Breck.

We tried to say to Breck, "OK, this guy's acting really weird.

"This is scary, you guys need to get out."

Lewis joined the server while we were having a chat,

began counteracting everything we were saying,

saying we were bitching about Breck to him and that we did hate him.

I ended up just saying, "Oh, you know what? Screw it,

"I don't have the effort or time to argue."

All he did was make our life really shit.

Around November time,

a bunch of us older guys just decided that was enough.

So we decided to leave. And that was the last time I spoke to Breck.

Breck stayed in Lewis's gaming group.

Under Lewis's influence, he'd given up many of his hobbies,

including Air Cadets.

I did try and talk to Breck about why he started not coming up

and he just shoved me off with generic answers,

"I can't, I'm busy."

It was literally just like someone had flicked a switch

and he just stopped.

The smiling, happy Breck just wasn't there any more.

He kept everything to himself and became much more isolated.

Looking back, that was probably a sign

that something wasn't quite right.

Lewis had been grooming Breck for eight months.

And now there was only one person standing in his way.

Breck would have his headphones on.

I'd be standing there with Breck saying,

"Breck, you need to come and do this couple of things."

And he'd have Daynes literally in his ear,

saying, "You don't have to do that. Don't listen to her."

You don't have to do that. Don't listen to her.

I had to do something about it.

So we had this online chat and it went back and forth.

I said, "Why are you trying to tell me how to raise my son?"

And he'd say, "He doesn't want to go to church, why do you make him?"

He doesn't believe in God, it's a waste of time.

And I would say, "Well, that's what we do as a family,

"and it's one hour a week.

"I'm not asking for a full-time commitment."

And he'd say...

Why are you forcing Breck to do chores

when it's really the triplets who make the mess?

"He shouldn't have to do any of these chores."

Then he always had a thing where he'd say...

Breck's a good boy. Doesn't smoke, doesn't do drugs.

"Why can't you just let him be?"

Breck gets good grades.

Why can't you let him be on the Wi-Fi when he wants?

Listen, he's my son, I care about him,

all of my rules, everything we do as a family is because I love him.

And I wrote, "And that's that. End of story."

And that was it, that was the absolute last time

that we had any conversations together.

-Dude, are you there?

-Yes, bro.

-Hello?

-Yeah.

-God, OK, so my mum has just gone absolutely mad.

She's really panicking and she's called my dad in.

Yeah, she gets off on making out

like I'm some sort of creepy criminal, Breck.

She's threatening to take away all my computer equipment

and I actually think she'll do it this time

because she's going absolutely mad.

She's manipulating you, she's controlling you, Breck.

It's abuse. She might be your mum, but she's a total failure.

It is painfully obvious that Lewis Daynes was encouraging Breck

to act out against his mother. I was horrified.

And, you know, we spoke to Breck about it.

He initially said, "He's a good guy, and has a great heart."

And I'm kind of like, "Well, we challenge that,

"you're 14, you really don't know."

I'm not some stranger.

OK, she's going to isolate you from you and your friends, including me.

Is that what you want?

I told Breck, "We don't know this guy, if he's good or bad,

"he may be great, he may be not, we just don't know,

"and it's our job to protect you, as parents."

They just want to meet you, and I know it's a really massive ask,

but is there any way you could just come and meet them

so they'll stop going on at me like this?

You know I can't do that, I've got too much work on at the moment,

too many responsibilities.

He would never do it. So that was when we really got concerned.

I just had this image that he was a 40-year-old fat paedophile

sitting behind a computer screen.

So I called the police.

I wanted to know if Daynes was known to the police.

I passed over Daynes' full name.

Breck had told me he was 18.

Beck had told me he was from Essex originally.

And I gave as much information as I could.

I was just told that the system would be checked.

In our wildest dreams, we thought maybe because of these war games

and the fact he was talking about Syria,

maybe he was radicalising these kids for terrorism, we didn't know.

Desperate to persuade Breck to give up his friendship with Lewis,

Lorin contacted other parents.

She just doesn't understand any of this, she's panicking.

She's going to call this meeting with another boy and his parents

to discuss the situation. It's, like, totally ridiculous,

I don't know what I'm going to do.

Breck, your mum shouldn't be controlling what you do.

Breck, you know what you need to do?

You need to record that sodding meeting, get it on tape.

What do you mean, record it?

Record it. You're an intelligent lad, you'll figure it out.

Yeah, I guess it would be kind of funny.

At least then you can see

exactly what she's been saying to me for this long.

Exactly, Breck, we'll have a good laugh.

I mean, maybe we could even send it to the police.

That would sort her out.

-Are you going to do that for me, Breck?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, I will.

-Good lad.

Breck's secret recording of the meeting was later found by police.

Sensing his parents weren't going to back down, Breck gave in.

To make sure Breck did what he'd promised,

Lorin took away all his computer equipment.

Breck was very upset

and quite annoyed at Mum that she was being so mean.

He thought she was just punishing him.

He didn't realise that she was trying to save him.

I listened out for his name.

We listened for Lewis, we listened for a new name, maybe a new alias.

I listened for his voice.

And the sad thing is that it all went underground

after I forbade him from speaking.

Christmas 2013 was a great Christmas.

I remember the kids came to my house as well

and we had all sorts of presents.

Breck got a new hoodie that he wanted.

It was like we had Breck back

because he wasn't on the computer all the time,

and it was kind of good to see him there.

I was very happy.

But after nine months of intense psychological pressure,

Lewis wasn't going to give him up easily.

He secretly couriered him a phone.

And believing their son was over his friendship with Lewis,

Breck's parents gave him his computers back.

This is, like, the last picture we have of him.

It's a week before he died.

That was right before he went to Spain.

His Spanish trip, I think, he really enjoyed it.

He met a girl that he liked.

And to see Breck post a picture of him and a girl together,

I was a bit... I thought...

"Aww, that's nice.

"That's...that's good for him, you know."

To have that for the first time.

I remember picking up Breck at the airport.

He looked tall, he looked confident and he had a great time.

After we got back, he asked if he could go to a friend's house.

I was so happy that he wanted to go and physically hang out with

one of his friends instead of being on the computer that I said OK.

And he gave me the name and said it was Tom and I said,

"Do you want me to take you?" He said, "No, I'll take care of it."

He texted me after a couple of hours

and said that he would like to spend the night. They had pizza.

I'd be really proud of him, he was going to be working on

some computer stuff and they were trying to make

a faster operating system for something,

which sounded, OK, great, that's fine.

And I didn't think anything of it.

I was happy that he was with one of his friends.

The next morning, when Tom logged on to TeamSpeak,

it became clear that something was very wrong.

It was the first day of half-term and I was home alone.

And I got up fairly early

cos I couldn't sleep the night before, I didn't sleep so well.

I went on the computer for a bit.

And then Lewis came on.

He said that, you know, there'd been an accident,

that Breck had come around to Lewis's house

sort of depressed and suicidal.

Tried to hurt himself with a knife.

RINGING TONE

'Essex Police, emergency.'

And that Breck was dead.

'What's happened?'

My friend came to stay the night with me yesterday seeming very down.

Feeling suicidal.

I was scared.

I wasn't... At first I thought maybe it was a joke.

I tried to calm him down. I hugged him,

then said that...

..I was there for him.

'Right, OK.'

I have a penknife adjacent to my bed,

I have a chest of drawers.

I've got aftershave and the TV and stuff on it.

I had a penknife on there, folded, he picked it up...

The news spread quickly amongst Breck's gaming friends.

I kind of came on to TeamSpeak and was told that Breck had died.

He picked it up, opened it and then lost control.

'What, in order to harm himself?'

No, in order to harm me. He opened it and then lost control.

-'OK, to harm...'

-TYPING

I was just sort of shocked and I just sort of sat there

sort of at my computer, just sort of in silence really.

-Can you not interrupt me with this part?

-'OK, go on.'

-OK. This is being recorded anyway, isn't it?

-'Yeah.'

I grabbed the knife and I stabbed him once in the back of the neck,

I believe somewhere near the brainstem.

He turned around, tried to...

That was when it was like, holy shit!

Like, this has actually happened.

Breck must have died feeling incredibly alone.

He was on his own with this guy who promised him everything,

ended up living in a pretty rough area of Essex,

in, like, a small flat.

I don't remember exactly what happened,

but the fight ended with cutting his throat.

I believe I turned around and I slashed his throat.

Why... Why would...? I don't understand why he would do that.

To build up the trust and friendship and then to murder him.

I was just so shocked, I just couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe it.

'You're telling me he is definitely dead.'

Yes, I'm telling you he is definitely dead.

'Can you just bear with me a second? Don't tell me any more.'

At first you just thought maybe it was just an accident,

maybe they'd had an argument or Lewis had said

Breck had tried to commit suicide and he tried to stop him.

Although it did sound ridiculous.

How can you accidentally stab someone in the neck?

-'Right, you've left the weapon in the hallway.

-Yeah.

-'And have spent how long sitting in the shower?

-I don't know.

'Look, are the police on their way? I can hear sirens.

-'They are, they are.

-I'm gonna go and do my part.

-'Thank you for your help.

-Right, just listen...'

The calm tone of the 999 call suggested to Essex Police

that Lewis Daynes was no ordinary killer.

What we have is a 14-year-old boy being groomed

to go and see an 18-year-old man, and that 18-year-old man

has lied quite significantly to him about the reason for that meeting.

That's what I needed to focus my investigation on.

Walking into the flat was very...startling.

The hallway had a knife lying on the floor.

In the lounge, there was a bag of clothing cut up.

Duct tape in the bins.

It looked as though it had been used to bind somebody

and it looked like it would be maybe hands or feet, something like that.

In the lounge, there was a tower unit, there was

an external hard drive on the table.

In the bathroom there was a sink filled with water,

and there were a number of devices and hard drives

and some phones that were covered in water.

In the bedroom, there was one laptop on the bed

that was covered in blood.

Breck had a significant injury to his neck,

and at the end of the postmortem,

the declaration of Breck's death was an incision to his...

to the right side of his neck.

I have nightmares

and I just keep playing it over and over in my mind when I go to bed.

What happened? What happened? You know, was he suffering long?

Was he, you know, was he screaming? Was he crying?

It kills me to think at what point things turned for Breck,

and he realised, "Whoa, I really messed up and I'm in trouble here."

Lewis maintained his story of self-defence.

But evidence was pointing to the contrary.

We identified that Lewis Daynes had purchased duct tape and condoms.

He'd planned this.

It's definitely a good three weeks beforehand

that he's putting things into place to meet Breck.

Despite Lewis Daynes' attempt

to destroy all the computer evidence in water,

he'd left one vital clue -

Breck's iPad,

which police found at the bottom of his backpack.

On it, proof that Lewis had continued to pursue Breck.

"I feel completely worthless in respect of us being friends.

"I've done nothing wrong.

"I've been a good friend to you for almost a year now..."

Police retrieved a barrage of e-mails from Lewis to Breck

dating back to Christmas.

"What if she takes your PC away, what happens then?

"And you responded with, 'I won't let that happen.'"

"Well, Breck, it's happened.

"Your mother has completely isolated you from your friends."

Lewis Daynes was constantly contacting Breck,

making sure that Breck's focus of attention was on Lewis Daynes.

"I'm being treated like some kind of criminal..."

And he would be quite demanding in the e-mails to Breck -

"Why aren't you contacting me, what are you doing?

"You seem to have forgotten about me."

Breck?

Breck?

It was scary.

To think that a young man of that age would be

controlling in that way.

Daynes has clearly groomed him to not speak to anyone else about this.

He has just not shared it with anybody.

We do know that Breck got a taxi in the morning,

that that taxi had been pre-booked by Breck after conversation

with Lewis Daynes two weeks before the date.

He's saying, "If your father asks you where you are going on Sunday,

"say you are going to meet a friend who's 14.

"And then just say, 'I've spent too many half-terms

"'and holidays indoors.

"'I'm going to spend this one outside with friends.'"

Every day I challenge myself,

what could I have done to protect Breck better?

'..noxious gases...'

I have been told by the police and by everybody else,

"You did everything you could

"and Lewis Daynes was just an evil person."

Let's check if he's alive...

But still, deep down, I don't believe that.

It's my responsibility. I had him and I was responsible for him.

I let him go to his death.

That will haunt us for ever.

I'd like to thank you all for coming. OK.

As Breck's parents, I think it is only right that you should know

what we have actually identified throughout the investigation.

I'm just going to explain to you...

Detectives discovered that Lewis Daynes had been abandoned

by his parents as a child and had grown up in and out of foster care.

Living alone from the age of 16,

he had developed unhealthy online interests.

-DETECTIVE:

-Lewis was, by his very nature, obsessive.

He was obsessed with Syria.

CHANTING

There is a link that was sent to the young people

about a Syrian beheading.

And it is one of the worst that I have ever seen.

And there are links in reference to sexual past, to sexual behaviour.

Within the last six months, between September and February,

Lewis Daynes was aiming to meet at least one

of the people within the community,

and Breck just happened to be the first person he met.

CHANTING

Police discovered Lewis Daynes had bought server space in Germany

and had access to an online community of over 400 gamers.

He practically created this sort of...

I guess you could call it an empire,

where he could just drag in anybody he wanted.

He has got servers for games like Minecraft,

which means young kids are going to want to come on his server.

He can get any teenage guy he wants,

because he has servers for games like Team Fortress 2.

And he had such endurance that he would talk to them for...

two, three years. Until he made his move.

He doesn't look like a murderer.

Just looking on the Essex Police page,

and somebody has commented on the post that, "Oh, my God, I went to

"school with him, he was always the kid that was bullied.

"Guess he just snapped."

I just feel like this whole situation could have been averted

if we didn't know Lewis.

And if we didn't meet him at all.

None of this would have happened and Breck would have been alive.

OK, Tom, this is about...

After a ten-month investigation, police finally had the answer

to why 14-year-old Breck had secretly gone to Lewis' flat.

-Breck, Breck, get in my chat, I want to speak.

-What?

It was Lewis's greatest deception

and one that would cost Breck his life.

-Yo, what's up?

-I'm running out of time, Breck.

-What you talking about?

Look, Breck, I didn't want to let on, but I'm...

I'm ill.

-You're ill?

-Yeah.

-What, like, flu or something?

-Don't joke, Breck.

I'm serious.

I'm unable to keep control of the company. It's just too much for me.

I've tried, but it's taking too much toll on my health.

I've decided I want to hand it over to you.

What?

-You joking?

-No. And this is why I need you to step up.

-Because I need you to take over.

-What...

-Mate, what are you talking about?

-The company, Breck, I'm serious.

I wouldn't lie to you, Breck.

I need you to take control of the company.

Grab it with both hands. You need to step up, Breck. For me.

You're not going to let me down, are you?

-When you're back from holiday...

-Yeah?

-..come over to my place...

-Yeah.

-We'll talk through the details.

I'll hand over the company to you.

You'll do that for me, won't you?

Er...

-And...and you'll be there with me?

-Of course.

I need you to bring your tablets, your phone, your drives, everything.

Absolutely everything.

And then I will take you through the business, every step.

And I will be with you, every step of the way

until you get the hang of what you need to do.

And from there on in, I will explain my health situation.

OK.

Er...

-All right, then.

-Can't wait.

Can't wait to meet you, too.

Yes!

On the morning of the trial, I was due to go as a witness into court.

Um...then, just before we were about to leave,

we got a phone call saying, "He has pleaded guilty."

Which was hard to hear, because still some part of me

wanted it to be, you know, "This was an accident,

"just a tragic accident, it's not a murder."

Lewis Daynes was convicted of murder with sexual and sadistic intent

and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The biggest trend at the moment,

the biggest thing that we are hearing about is grooming online.

And this is so hard to try and police

because you don't physically know who that person is.

You have just got to notice the signals.

There were clear signals that Lewis was letting out that were dangerous.

And you just need to make sure that you're picking up on them.

Because that is what is going to keep you safe.

I think there's so much more we all need to learn about grooming.

I think we just need to keep reminding teens

and younger children not to trust people that we don't know online.

..and like to welcome Lorin today.

We'll be talking about internet safety,

a topic which we have been covering and is highly debated in schools.

You know, Breck felt like the friend that he met online

was a true friend.

And because he met them through other people that he knew,

friends of friends, it felt safe.

And unfortunately, people are not always who they say they are online.

'When I made that phone call to the police,

'I wanted to know if Daynes was known to the police.'

Well, Daynes was known to the police.

For prior sexual activity.

Allegations against a 15-year-old boy.

In the system, this was in the system.

In my pretend dreams, the police would come to the door,

speak to Breck and say, "Actually, your mum was right."

And Breck would have finally believed me.

And in my mind, that is what should have happened in my life.

And my son would be here.

I would still be a productive human being instead of what I am now,

which is a shell of a person.

-SOBBING:

-I'm only alive for the triplets, and I'm not alive for me.

-I found this one in an old folder.

-What is it?

And it's the acceptance letter from when Breck went to Caterham School.

Breck's 13-year-old siblings have to learn to live with

the hole left in their lives.

-Do you want to do some more trimming?

-Yeah.

Every day is different, because Breck is not here.

-When we were camping, is that it?

-He's not in his bedroom.

He's not on his computer.

Sometimes, I still lay one too many places at the dinner table.

And that really makes me sad.

It's hard at school.

I kind of don't like it that everyone knows about it,

that I'm the sister of the boy who was murdered.

It's just such an ugly word, "murdered".

Sometimes I just want to go and sit by Breck's tree at school and cry

instead of having to go to lessons.

Today would have been Breck's 16th birthday.

..stuff them in the car.

In his memory, Lorin has decided to continue visiting schools

to educate teenagers.

I want something good to come out of Breck's murder.

It's a known fact that there are people out there,

paedophiles grooming teenagers, more than we know.

But groomers are chameleons

and they will be whoever they think they need to be

to convince that child to do something they wouldn't normally do.

Happy birthday, Breck. You're 16 today.

This comes with love to wish you a wonderful day

because you're such a special son.

# This the last day of our acquaintance... #

Love you.

Hi, Breck.

# This is the last day of our acquaintance... #

OK, guys, do you want to let the balloons off? Do you miss Brecky?

All right, on the count of three...

One, two, three...

-ALL:

-Happy birthday, Breck!

You know what, I feel it's my job to get the word out

if the work that I do can save another life.

OK, Breck, we celebrate your birthday,

whether you are here or not.

We miss you, Breck. We love you.

One, two, three...

# This is the last day of our acquaintance

# Oh-ho-ho

# I will meet you later in somebody's office... #