Over the course of a few months, 18-year-old Lewis Daynes groomed 14-year-old Breck Bednar, who lived in Surrey with his mother and siblings. Daynes targeted Bednar on a gaming website which some of Bednar’s friends were also a member of. They would speak to one another over a microphone. However, Bednar’s friends soon became worried that Daynes was attempting to turn Bednar against his family and control and manipulate him.Â
This manipulation was worked working and Bednar began to act different around his family and spent less and less time with them and more and more time online. Alarmed by his behaviour and reports of online grooming, Bednar’s mother contacted the police in December of 2013. Nothing ever came of this and within just a few months, Bednar would be dead.Â
On 16 February, 2014, Bednar got a taxi to Daynes’ apartment after lying to his family, claiming he was staying overnight at a friend’s house. Once inside the apartment, Daynes tied Bednar up with tape before stabbing him and then slitting his throat. A medical examination revealed that Bednar had also been raped before being killed, thus leading investigators to believe that the murder had been sexually motivated.Â
After the murder, Daynes called the police and said, “I need police and a forensic team. My friend and I got into an altercation and I am the only one who came out alive” - the fact that Bednar had been tied up before being killed clearly proves otherwise. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
