Alex Trelinski
A Castellon Province man has been given a ten-year jail sentence after a teenage boy committed suicide due to constant harassment via the WhatsApp messaging app.
Vicente Paradis, 62, from Moncofa sent the 17-year-old boy hundreds of messages, some of sexual or aggressive nature.
It got too much for the youngster who took his life in December 2016.
Paradis was found guilty in July with jurors hearing that he sent the boy over 119 threatening messages in less than three hours on the day he committed suicide.
The teenager had asked Paradis stop contacting him, warning that ‘If he continued like this, he would commit suicide’.
In a sentencing statement, the court said Paradis was ‘fully aware of the anguish and discomfort’ he was causing and that there was a ‘high probability’ the boy would take his life.
Paradis threatened to share the WhatsApp messages and blackmail the boy for using adult websites, the court added.
In addition to the prison sentence, he was ordered to pay €146,000 in compensation to the boy’s parents and €27,000 to his brother.
Paradis continues to maintain his innocence and his solicitor has said that an appeal will be lodged with the Valencian Superior Court.
