Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - Every Parent’s Worse Nightmare： Breck Brednar

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True Crime Documentary - Every Parent’s Worse Nightmare： Breck Brednar · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:11
Speaker 1: Social media is a huge part of where interactions take
0:14
Speaker 1: place for young people. However, a lot of these technologies
0:18
Speaker 1: I feel are the double edged sword.
0:21
Speaker 2: I think this case was a wake up call for
0:24
Speaker 2: everyone about the dangers of the online world, online contact,
0:28
Speaker 2: online communication, and gaming in particular.
0:33
Speaker 3: The majority of people have really healthy and happy relationships
0:36
Speaker 3: with gaming, but on the fringes of video games there
0:41
Speaker 3: are these militious individuals who will take people outside of
0:46
Speaker 3: gaming to more private spaces.
0:49
Speaker 4: I'm worried that Breck and the boys are being groomed
0:51
Speaker 4: by someone they're gaming with online, and everyone's response, Oh,
0:55
Speaker 4: don't worry, They're all online with strangers.
0:57
Speaker 5: Now, that's the norm.
0:58
Speaker 1: The warning signs are changes in your child's behavior.
1:02
Speaker 6: Are they being secretive? Are they spending loads of time
1:06
Speaker 6: in their room by themselves.
1:08
Speaker 2: They communicated through the channel called teams speak.
1:11
Speaker 5: He was being inundated by this predator.
1:15
Speaker 7: So she took away his means of communicating with him.
1:20
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, it made it more dangerous because it all went underground.
1:25
Speaker 4: I didn't recognize even how evil some people can be.
1:29
Speaker 8: Myself six place merchants say, father, I need police and
1:58
Speaker 8: a forensic team to my rest. Please, what do you mean.
2:02
Speaker 9: My friend and I got into an altercation and I'm
2:09
Speaker 9: the only one who came out alive.
2:14
Speaker 4: I grew up in Michigan and then had the opportunity
2:17
Speaker 4: to move to London in nineteen ninety seven when I
2:20
Speaker 4: decided with my ex husband now we wanted to try
2:23
Speaker 4: to have a family. It took us four years to
2:26
Speaker 4: have Breck, my first child. Finally my dream came true
2:30
Speaker 4: and he was a dream baby. We took him everywhere
2:33
Speaker 4: and we just didn't really enjoyed it, and two years
2:36
Speaker 4: later we actually had triplets.
2:38
Speaker 5: We hit the bonus and Breck was a great big brother.
2:42
Speaker 4: He was helpful and he taught them things and he
2:44
Speaker 4: was always sort of my right hand man. He was clever,
2:49
Speaker 4: and probably all moms think that, but he was sort
2:53
Speaker 4: of labeled boy wonder from an early age because he
2:56
Speaker 4: could just put things together, and he almost looked at
2:59
Speaker 4: puzzles and how things worked in a different way than
3:02
Speaker 4: I did, and that I saw other people, he would
3:04
Speaker 4: just imagine how they worked. He loved all the sciences
3:08
Speaker 4: because that just fit right into it, and computing and technology.
3:16
Speaker 5: We were living in.
3:17
Speaker 4: Surrey and it was nice because we could walk to
3:20
Speaker 4: school together I even started working at the children's school.
3:24
Speaker 4: Brick just started getting more and more interested into computing
3:27
Speaker 4: and programming. And those were the sort of friends he
3:30
Speaker 4: made at school, the ones who were the more science guys,
3:32
Speaker 4: and they actually did have a great sense of humor together,
3:35
Speaker 4: and they invited him into a new gaming group when
3:38
Speaker 4: he was thirteen years old.
3:42
Speaker 3: The majority of people have really healthy and happy relationships
3:45
Speaker 3: with gaming. It's likely that your friends, your colleagues, your family.
3:51
Speaker 3: Out of all of them, someone within their will play
3:54
Speaker 3: video games. In an online game, the developers create a
3:58
Speaker 3: world and that is yours to explore with your friends.
4:03
Speaker 3: These online gaming spaces are the new malls, they're the
4:07
Speaker 3: new playparks.
4:09
Speaker 5: The majority of.
4:09
Speaker 3: People come to video games and they have really great experiences.
4:15
Speaker 3: But on the fringes of video games there are these
4:20
Speaker 3: malicious individuals attracted to it precisely because it is popular,
4:25
Speaker 3: and these malicious individuals will take people outside of gaming
4:30
Speaker 3: to more private spaces, and in those cases, it's not
4:36
Speaker 3: video games that are the problem. It's the individuals that
4:40
Speaker 3: will predate upon people within that space and try to
4:45
Speaker 3: remove them.
4:47
Speaker 2: Brick Bednar began gaming online. A number of friends of
4:53
Speaker 2: Bricks we're also playing these games online. They communicated through
4:58
Speaker 2: the channel called teams.
5:01
Speaker 4: To me, that felt safe because it was with friends
5:04
Speaker 4: from school who I had known since they were young.
5:07
Speaker 4: You know, I never imagined that it would be anything
5:09
Speaker 4: other than those friends playing together.
5:18
Speaker 5: At home. I would listen to what was happening on
5:21
Speaker 5: the computer, which was mostly.
5:23
Speaker 4: In sort of shared areas and doors were open, and
5:28
Speaker 4: I literally, when he was thirteen years old, noticed that
5:31
Speaker 4: there was an older sounding voice within the gaming group.
5:35
Speaker 4: And immediately it didn't feel natural, and I was worried
5:39
Speaker 4: as a mom. And when I questioned Breck, he said, oh,
5:42
Speaker 4: that's you know, that's just Lewis. He runs the server.
5:47
Speaker 4: He's the best gamer. He's so clever, he's teaching us everything.
5:50
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, well, you know, how do
5:52
Speaker 4: you know him? And oh, the boys have been gaming
5:54
Speaker 4: with him for years.
5:57
Speaker 10: They became acquaintancee gaming online and the group in a
6:00
Speaker 10: particular group that was all run by Lewis Danes. He
6:03
Speaker 10: controlled all the members of the group and would take
6:07
Speaker 10: away privileges and definitely control their contribution.
6:12
Speaker 5: You could tell who was the boss.
6:16
Speaker 3: The best way to think of a gaming server is
6:18
Speaker 3: it's a space where you go to play a video game,
6:21
Speaker 3: and there can be public spaces and there can be
6:24
Speaker 3: private spaces. When you play on a public server, you're
6:27
Speaker 3: playing lots of people with set rules. The thing with
6:31
Speaker 3: private servers is that if you're entering that space of
6:34
Speaker 3: someone who has bad intent, then actually you're entering their domain.
6:43
Speaker 11: Breck Bedner enters a private server owned by fellow gamer
6:47
Speaker 11: Lewis Danes.
6:50
Speaker 4: Immediately it went through my head, is this really a
6:53
Speaker 4: seventeen year old as Brick claims, or could it be
6:56
Speaker 4: you know, somebody catfishing pretending to be something they're not.
7:00
Speaker 5: Even though I worked part.
7:01
Speaker 4: Time at school, my full time job was being a mom,
7:05
Speaker 4: and so I did feel like I knew what was
7:07
Speaker 4: happening with the children, and I could hear this older
7:10
Speaker 4: sounding voice speaking with Breck right in my own house,
7:14
Speaker 4: and it did worry me. I made the effort to
7:16
Speaker 4: try to get to know all of the boys within
7:19
Speaker 4: the gaming group. I'd say, hey, you know, hey, guys,
7:21
Speaker 4: what's going on? And they weren't really used to it.
7:24
Speaker 4: So the ones that knew Breck and the ones that
7:26
Speaker 4: knew me kind of clammed up and went quiet. But
7:29
Speaker 4: the person I didn't know, Lewis would be chatty, Hey, Mom,
7:32
Speaker 4: how you doing. We'd talk about the weather, what was
7:35
Speaker 4: going on. Breck had told me he lived in New
7:37
Speaker 4: York City, so of course, growing up in the States,
7:40
Speaker 4: I was interested, how is that English boy living at
7:44
Speaker 4: seventeen years old already in another country? And so I
7:46
Speaker 4: would ask questions and it was all very pleasant at
7:49
Speaker 4: that point. But what I noticed is I never felt
7:52
Speaker 4: like Lewis had real stories about what was going on
7:56
Speaker 4: in New York City. He was always on our time
7:59
Speaker 4: zone in English, and I never felt like he was
8:01
Speaker 4: on a different time zone.
8:02
Speaker 5: When I would talk to.
8:03
Speaker 4: Breck about it, he'd say, Oh, that's because he works.
8:05
Speaker 5: His own hours.
8:06
Speaker 12: Mom.
8:06
Speaker 4: He's you know, he's his own boss. He works for
8:08
Speaker 4: this you know, government agency. Breck wasn't stupid, but you know,
8:14
Speaker 4: obviously didn't recognize sort of the evil in the world.
8:18
Speaker 4: So the stories didn't add up to me. But the
8:20
Speaker 4: more that I tried to convince Breck, the more the
8:23
Speaker 4: Blewis tried to make it feel as if I was
8:27
Speaker 4: a mean mom, that I was judgmental, that I didn't
8:29
Speaker 4: understand computing and technology, that I, you know, didn't want
8:33
Speaker 4: the best for Breck. Literally one of this, you know,
8:35
Speaker 4: sort of signs of grooming was this turning a child
8:38
Speaker 4: away from their parents, and he was trying to make
8:40
Speaker 4: out as if I was the bad guy.
8:43
Speaker 1: Online manipulation and grooming can be a very slow and
8:47
Speaker 1: subtle process. But some of the warning signs as a
8:51
Speaker 1: parent are changes in your child's behavior, withdrawing from friends,
8:57
Speaker 1: withdrawing from family.
9:00
Speaker 6: Has your child had a big mood change? Are they
9:02
Speaker 6: being secretive? Are they spending loads of time, you know,
9:06
Speaker 6: in their room by themselves.
9:08
Speaker 5: Is there a certain.
9:10
Speaker 6: Anxiety about it? Do they talk about particular person who
9:14
Speaker 6: you've never met? There are things you can say as clues,
9:18
Speaker 6: and I have to say at this point, you know,
9:20
Speaker 6: Laurence saw all that.
9:23
Speaker 1: Over a period of time, through the online gaming interactions,
9:28
Speaker 1: Lewis groomed, brainwashed Breck. Over a period of months, Lewis
9:36
Speaker 1: began to isolate Breck from his friends and his family
9:40
Speaker 1: and created a situation where Lewis became the only person
9:45
Speaker 1: that Breck felt that he could trust.
9:49
Speaker 11: Lewis Jines uses the digital space to manipulate Breck and
9:53
Speaker 11: his online friends.
9:57
Speaker 2: Lewis Danes spun away lies on that gaming communication channel
10:05
Speaker 2: he promised the boys and Breck in particular, that they
10:09
Speaker 2: would earn one hundred thousand pounds once they left school
10:12
Speaker 2: through this technology venture, and through that he managed to
10:17
Speaker 2: control access to the site, who was allowed in, and
10:22
Speaker 2: in particular he had an huge influence over Breck.
10:27
Speaker 5: None of them had seen him at that point. Lewis
10:30
Speaker 5: hid his identity.
10:31
Speaker 4: Eventually, to alleviate the boy's concerns that I was bringing up.
10:36
Speaker 4: He showed himself in a very sort of grainy dark
10:39
Speaker 4: room to just breckon one other friend and that way
10:43
Speaker 4: they easily reported back, Yeah, we met him. He's, you know,
10:46
Speaker 4: a teenager like us. Yes, Breck's mom is paranoid.
10:52
Speaker 5: I think it was.
10:52
Speaker 4: Really confusing because the boys didn't recognize that predators can
10:58
Speaker 4: be any age.
11:01
Speaker 1: One of the ways in which Lewis isolated Breck from
11:04
Speaker 1: his family was to undermine his parents, his mum in particular,
11:09
Speaker 1: criticizing her style of parenting. In one incident, Lewis wrote
11:16
Speaker 1: for Brek what his mum later called a manifesto, saying
11:21
Speaker 1: that if she didn't comply with his demands, that Breck
11:25
Speaker 1: would leave home at the age of sixteen and go
11:28
Speaker 1: and get a job that Lewis would provide for him.
11:32
Speaker 4: I kept trying to gather information and monitor what Breck
11:36
Speaker 4: was saying, what was happening, and when I would go
11:39
Speaker 4: into the room, a wicked witch would fly across the screen.
11:42
Speaker 4: One day too, I went in and said, all brackets,
11:44
Speaker 4: time for dinner, and a picture of Hitler marched across
11:48
Speaker 4: the stage. So I knew that what I was trying
11:50
Speaker 4: to do as a parent II keep Breck safe wasn't helping.
11:54
Speaker 11: Danes creates private channels on a server to communicate solely
11:58
Speaker 11: with Breck.
12:00
Speaker 1: With Breck's friends, Lewis fabricated and overheard conversation saying that
12:06
Speaker 1: he'd heard his friends saying that they didn't really like Breck.
12:10
Speaker 1: In fact, they hated him. This story it was untrue,
12:14
Speaker 1: but that also drew a wedge between Breck and his friends,
12:18
Speaker 1: again reinforcing that Lewis was the only person left in
12:23
Speaker 1: the world for Brett to trust.
12:26
Speaker 4: I talked to everyone I knew about it. I said,
12:28
Speaker 4: I'm worried that Breck and the boys are being groomed
12:31
Speaker 4: by someone they're gaming with online. And everyone's response at
12:34
Speaker 4: that point, oh, don't worry, they're all online with strangers now.
12:38
Speaker 5: That's the norm. Nobody said, WHOA.
12:40
Speaker 4: You know, go to child exploitation or Online Protection Command,
12:44
Speaker 4: see you know Colin SBCC. I felt like I was
12:46
Speaker 4: seeking help, but I was going in the wrong places.
12:50
Speaker 4: So I tried to talk to Breck himself. He couldn't
12:52
Speaker 4: see it. He was happy, he was enjoying the attention,
12:55
Speaker 4: the knowledge.
12:56
Speaker 5: That he was gaining.
12:57
Speaker 4: There was a point where it was difficult for me
12:59
Speaker 4: to get him to do any family activity, and that
13:03
Speaker 4: was hard because he was being torn by the predator
13:06
Speaker 4: and by me.
13:07
Speaker 5: It felt like radicalization.
13:08
Speaker 4: It felt like he was teaching them extremists beliefs and
13:12
Speaker 4: thoughts and turning them against family, turning them against school.
13:15
Speaker 4: Brecon joined air Cadets because he wanted to be a pilot.
13:18
Speaker 4: Lewis literally got in the middle of that and talked
13:22
Speaker 4: Breck into.
13:22
Speaker 5: Quitting air Cadets.
13:24
Speaker 4: Everything that was healthy and good and maybe the norm
13:28
Speaker 4: this predator was trying to pull him away from.
13:31
Speaker 5: I literally decided I.
13:33
Speaker 4: Had to do the biggest, most important thing that I
13:35
Speaker 4: knew how to do, and that's when I phoned the police.
13:57
Speaker 11: Surrey, England, mother of fourteen year old Breck Bedner is
14:02
Speaker 11: deeply concerned that an online predator is actively grooming her son.
14:10
Speaker 7: On the thirteenth December twenty thirteen, Breck's mother phone police.
14:15
Speaker 7: We're giving them as much information as she had gleaned
14:18
Speaker 7: about Danes, what she knew about his age, where he lived, etc.
14:23
Speaker 7: With the purpose of trying to understand from them, is
14:26
Speaker 7: this something that I should be worried about about my son?
14:30
Speaker 7: The operator who spoke to his mum handled it in
14:36
Speaker 7: a way that, when we look back now, was completely wrong.
14:40
Speaker 7: They didn't do anything in terms of research into Danes
14:47
Speaker 7: or trying to get an understanding of the relationship, or
14:50
Speaker 7: was there anything of concern from the police's perspective, or
14:53
Speaker 7: anything that they could give to the mum. So essentially,
14:58
Speaker 7: what she set out to do and achieved couldn't do
15:00
Speaker 7: because of the way she was dealt with by the police.
15:05
Speaker 5: Three times.
15:06
Speaker 4: I was told that police intelligence would be checked, and
15:09
Speaker 4: I felt so relieved because I felt like I finally
15:12
Speaker 4: am going to get the answers and fix the issues. Sadly,
15:17
Speaker 4: I then waited for the investigation outcome. They told me
15:22
Speaker 4: to take away Bre's technology, so I did. I got
15:25
Speaker 4: off the phone and I took away all of his
15:27
Speaker 4: technology for a week, and I then organized an intervention
15:31
Speaker 4: meeting with other parents and the boys two days later,
15:34
Speaker 4: and we sat them down and it was civil. I said,
15:37
Speaker 4: I'm worried that Lewis is grooming you, and Breck said, oh,
15:40
Speaker 4: that's a harsh term to say grooming. And then his
15:43
Speaker 4: dad said, well, that's why we're worried, Breck. You know,
15:45
Speaker 4: we feel that's what's happening.
15:48
Speaker 7: The ultimate sanction against Breck from his mum would be
15:55
Speaker 7: to remove all the computer and gaming equipment that he
15:59
Speaker 7: had to prevent him being able to communicate with Danes,
16:03
Speaker 7: and that's what she did, so she took away his
16:07
Speaker 7: means of communicating with him. Now, obviously that would have
16:11
Speaker 7: been the ultimate decision, a tricky decision and one that
16:15
Speaker 7: Breck himself wouldn't have liked.
16:21
Speaker 4: Unbeknownst to us, Lewis had told Brack to record the
16:26
Speaker 4: meeting in a little MP three player that I had
16:28
Speaker 4: missed when I took go out the technology, and so
16:31
Speaker 4: the meeting was recorded. Then it was able to be
16:34
Speaker 4: played to the other boys in the gaming group, again
16:37
Speaker 4: making the parents look like we were so awful and
16:40
Speaker 4: poor Brack, look what he has to go through and
16:43
Speaker 4: in the meeting. We tried to convince them, and eventually
16:46
Speaker 4: I think they just gave in because they just wanted
16:48
Speaker 4: the meeting to end after an hour or so, and
16:50
Speaker 4: they said, okay, fine, well game with some other friends.
16:54
Speaker 4: We won't be friends with Lewis anymore. Because I said,
16:56
Speaker 4: that's it. If he won't meet with us, then that's it.
17:00
Speaker 4: You know, I'll meet up in a car for a coffee,
17:02
Speaker 4: I'll meet in London, I'll meet in his town, I'll
17:04
Speaker 4: meet wherever or the.
17:05
Speaker 5: Dad's whatever would suit.
17:07
Speaker 4: And the boys literally said, he'll never meet up with
17:09
Speaker 4: any of you. He doesn't like parents. So we then
17:14
Speaker 4: collectively said, if he won't meet up, then that's it.
17:17
Speaker 4: No no friendship, no gaming, no interaction at all, and the
17:21
Speaker 4: boys reluctantly agreed.
17:23
Speaker 11: Reregg's parents give him back his computer equipment, but only
17:27
Speaker 11: after he promises to cease all communication with Danes.
17:31
Speaker 7: For rerex Mum, at this point, it would have been
17:34
Speaker 7: a relief. I think that this would hopefully be the
17:39
Speaker 7: end of the matter. Sadly, that wasn't what Danes had
17:44
Speaker 7: in mind. He couriered a burn a foam to Brett's
17:53
Speaker 7: home so he could continue the communications continue, the manipulation
17:58
Speaker 7: and the grooming.
18:01
Speaker 5: I felt like we had fixed the problem.
18:03
Speaker 4: Breck went back to being normal by the norm that
18:07
Speaker 4: he was happy, go lucky. If I asked him to
18:09
Speaker 4: do chores, he'd do it again. If I said come
18:11
Speaker 4: to the table to eat, he'd come. And it just
18:14
Speaker 4: felt like everything was fixed. Unfortunately, when I forbade Breck
18:21
Speaker 4: from speaking with this predator, it made it more dangerous
18:24
Speaker 4: because it all went underground.
18:28
Speaker 11: In February twenty fourteen, everything appears to be back to normal.
18:33
Speaker 11: Breck leaves for a school trip to Spain.
18:37
Speaker 4: This was an opportunity for him, you know, to really
18:40
Speaker 4: experience a different culture and spend time with his friend's
18:44
Speaker 4: face to face, which I felt so pleased for now.
18:47
Speaker 5: As we left, you know, we hugged and kissed and.
18:49
Speaker 4: I told him I loved him, and I just never
18:52
Speaker 4: expected that to be the last time I would see
18:55
Speaker 4: him alive. The messages and he said, oh it's great, mom,
19:07
Speaker 4: the food, the people, I'm having a great time.
19:11
Speaker 5: Sounded like he was really enjoying it.
19:13
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, I did find out later that he was being
19:16
Speaker 4: inundated by this predator who didn't want to let go
19:20
Speaker 4: just because he was on a school trip. And even
19:22
Speaker 4: when Breck had met a girl and he'd posted his
19:26
Speaker 4: picture leaning his head in with this girl, and Lewis
19:29
Speaker 4: couldn't stand it, you know, take that picture down.
19:31
Speaker 5: She looks horrible.
19:33
Speaker 10: There was obviously an element of jealousy there. Messages were
19:36
Speaker 10: sent firstly about why aren't you responding as quickly as
19:39
Speaker 10: you should be to my messages. That's why I sent
19:41
Speaker 10: you the phone. And also he then fixed an illness
19:45
Speaker 10: to get a some sympathy and be some response from Breck.
19:50
Speaker 11: Breck stays at his father's home in Surrey after his
19:53
Speaker 11: trip to Spain. Lewis Stains continues to contact Breck via
19:57
Speaker 11: the burner phone, pressuring the teen to meet with him
20:01
Speaker 11: in person.
20:02
Speaker 10: Lewis Daines put in Breck's mind the idea of we'll
20:06
Speaker 10: tell your father or at a sleepover, not with Louis Daynes,
20:10
Speaker 10: but with one of his friends. Unsurprisingly, father said yes,
20:13
Speaker 10: that's fine, because he knew the family that he said
20:16
Speaker 10: he would be staying with. But that was fictitious. But
20:18
Speaker 10: that was all set up by Lewis Danes to get
20:22
Speaker 10: Brex come stay with him. And it was of course
20:24
Speaker 10: the first time they'd met physically.
20:35
Speaker 7: On the sixteenth of February twenty fourteen, a taxi arrived
20:38
Speaker 7: at Bre's father's home and as far as his dad
20:43
Speaker 7: was concerned, this was taking him to his friend's house
20:47
Speaker 7: for this sleepover. But an actual fact, what we know
20:49
Speaker 7: now is that this taxi was booked by Danes and
20:52
Speaker 7: it took him all the way to Gray's in Essex,
20:56
Speaker 7: but trip of about thirty miles cost him about one
20:58
Speaker 7: hundred pounds. As far as they were concerned, at that stage,
21:04
Speaker 7: Danes was now out of his life. This was just
21:08
Speaker 7: a normal, innocent sleepover. He told him that he was
21:15
Speaker 7: ill and it was because of this illness that he
21:18
Speaker 7: couldn't carry on with his business, this multi million pound
21:22
Speaker 7: it business, and what he wanted to do was hand
21:28
Speaker 7: over that business to break. So if you just put
21:32
Speaker 7: yourself in brexposition, here he was being promised that his
21:37
Speaker 7: future was made, that he would have everything that he wanted,
21:40
Speaker 7: everything that he saw that Danes had, he was going
21:43
Speaker 7: to be given to. All he had to do was
21:45
Speaker 7: get a taxi to Danes's home where they could discuss
21:49
Speaker 7: the handover.
21:50
Speaker 5: Of the business.
22:03
Speaker 4: I woke up and it was my birthday and I
22:05
Speaker 4: felt this sort of impending doom.
22:09
Speaker 5: I didn't know what was wrong.
22:11
Speaker 4: I then got a strange message from his dad and
22:13
Speaker 4: he said Breck didn't come home from his friend's house
22:16
Speaker 4: and I need him to look after the triplets, and
22:19
Speaker 4: you know, I don't know where he is. Immediately, I
22:26
Speaker 4: was worried and started making phone calls, and I phoned
22:29
Speaker 4: up his friends. I'm trying to get answers, and they
22:32
Speaker 4: all sounded funny, and they said, oh, Brex, you know,
22:35
Speaker 4: with his friend, and then Brex with that friend, like
22:37
Speaker 4: they didn't know what to say. The reason they didn't
22:40
Speaker 4: know what to say is they knew something was very wrong. Unfortunately,
22:45
Speaker 4: his dad called me back and I did get, you know,
22:48
Speaker 4: the absolute worst news any parent could ever get.
23:11
Speaker 11: On February sixteenth, twenty fourteen, believing he is about to
23:16
Speaker 11: inherit a computing business, fourteen year old Breckbedner travels from
23:21
Speaker 11: Surrey to Essex to meet his online friend Lewis Danes.
23:28
Speaker 11: The trip takes a turn the next morning when Danes
23:31
Speaker 11: makes a shocking call to the police.
23:35
Speaker 9: Six flokes meds that say, my friend and I got
23:39
Speaker 9: into an altercation and I'm the only one who came
23:45
Speaker 9: out Oflive. Are you telling me you've killed somebody? Yes?
23:49
Speaker 8: I am right, and here I'm speaking to.
23:51
Speaker 9: My name is Louis Danes. I'm eighteen years old and
23:54
Speaker 9: I live.
23:56
Speaker 5: You're telling me he's definitely dead.
23:58
Speaker 9: I tell yes, I'm telling you he's definitely sad.
24:02
Speaker 7: On this Monday morning, around eleven o six am, Danes
24:07
Speaker 7: made a nine nine nine CORPS and in that call
24:11
Speaker 7: he said he needed the police and forensics to come
24:16
Speaker 7: to his home. He then went on to describe in
24:19
Speaker 7: his words, what happened there?
24:23
Speaker 3: Right, okay, Lewis, I need you to take me back
24:26
Speaker 3: through that again.
24:26
Speaker 9: So what happened last night? I have a chest to draws.
24:31
Speaker 9: I had a pen knife on the folded and he
24:33
Speaker 9: picked it up, opened it and then lost control. I
24:38
Speaker 9: slow down, let me just let me just take those
24:40
Speaker 9: dates out of it. Pending up on the bedside table.
24:42
Speaker 9: Bret web this or in order to harm himself? No,
24:46
Speaker 9: in order to harm me.
24:48
Speaker 10: He portrayed it that he Lewis, had been the victim
24:52
Speaker 10: of an attack by Brett, and Breck used a knife
24:56
Speaker 10: towards him.
24:58
Speaker 1: It sounds premeditated? Does sound the pre planned? The call
25:02
Speaker 1: handler confirmed to say, are you saying that you've killed somebody,
25:07
Speaker 1: to which Lewis coldly says, yes.
25:11
Speaker 9: I have. I, in self defense put my left arm
25:16
Speaker 9: up to block him from stabbing me effectively. He struggled.
25:22
Speaker 9: I got into the ground, he got up, I got
25:27
Speaker 9: the knife, and you can you not interrupt me with
25:32
Speaker 9: this part? Okay, go on.
25:38
Speaker 2: He wasn't frenzied, he wasn't panicked. He was slow, deliberate
25:45
Speaker 2: telling this story and this account, pausing at various times
25:50
Speaker 2: and then telling the operator at the end of the
25:52
Speaker 2: line to be quiet and let him finish. He was
25:56
Speaker 2: in control, and he wanted to control the narrative.
26:01
Speaker 9: He's being recorded anyway, Yea. I grabbed a knife and
26:05
Speaker 9: I stabbed him once in the back of the neck
26:08
Speaker 9: I believe, somewhere near the brain stem. He turned around,
26:13
Speaker 9: tried to carry it on, and I think I stumbled
26:18
Speaker 9: on my chest drawers. I fell over. I got back
26:21
Speaker 9: up back the way, and then I don't remember exactly
26:27
Speaker 9: what happened, but the fight ended with me cutting his throat.
26:31
Speaker 9: I believe I turned around and I splashed his throat
26:38
Speaker 9: and I fell. He fell face first on my bed.
26:44
Speaker 9: I tried to stop the bleeding.
26:48
Speaker 8: Yep.
26:50
Speaker 9: I was trying to compress the wound. Time, Louisa, you
26:54
Speaker 9: still in the room where Brecky is No.
26:57
Speaker 8: Where are you look this?
27:00
Speaker 9: Don't okay, don't interrupt me. Just let me explain this.
27:03
Speaker 9: If this is being a call of a.
27:04
Speaker 8: Police on their way, I can hear they are, they are.
27:07
Speaker 9: I'm not going to go and my heart fleet. Thank
27:09
Speaker 9: you for your help.
27:09
Speaker 2: Right he's the one that puts the phone down and
27:16
Speaker 2: says that he's now going to tell the story or
27:19
Speaker 2: help with the story with the police. It's one of
27:23
Speaker 2: the most chilling and extraordinary nine nine nine calls that
27:27
Speaker 2: I've ever heard.
27:30
Speaker 1: The full details of what happened in Lewis's apartment that
27:34
Speaker 1: night in February twenty fourteen we may never know. But
27:38
Speaker 1: what the paramedics and the police found when they did
27:42
Speaker 1: come to the apartment the following morning was breck lying
27:47
Speaker 1: dead in a pool of bloods apparently having being stabbed
27:51
Speaker 1: in the neck.
27:57
Speaker 7: The first people to attend this call would be local
28:00
Speaker 7: uniform officers and they have number one priority and that's
28:03
Speaker 7: a preservation of life. So when they're entering into Danes's flat,
28:09
Speaker 7: even though on the phone call, Danes is saying I'm
28:12
Speaker 7: in no doubt myself that Bre's dead. They can't take.
28:14
Speaker 5: That as final.
28:17
Speaker 7: They have to go in and check themselves to make
28:19
Speaker 7: sure there's no chance that they can save brex life. Sadly,
28:24
Speaker 7: when they go into the flat, it's quite clear that
28:27
Speaker 7: Breck is dead and there's nothing they can do, so
28:29
Speaker 7: this would now be treated as a crime scene. Bre's
28:33
Speaker 7: body itself will be treated as a chrime scene, and
28:36
Speaker 7: also as somebody was there at the time Breck died,
28:41
Speaker 7: Danes himself will be treated as a chrime scene, so
28:44
Speaker 7: it would be important to gain control of him to
28:46
Speaker 7: make sure any forensic evidence can be retrieved from him.
28:49
Speaker 7: Later on, the.
28:53
Speaker 11: Scene is secured and Lewis Danes is taken into custody.
28:59
Speaker 11: Crime scene instigators began the process of collecting evidence.
29:05
Speaker 7: When these officers went into the flat, the investigators and
29:09
Speaker 7: they walked down a long corridor and one of the
29:12
Speaker 7: first things they see is a knife on the floor.
29:17
Speaker 7: They go into the living room and within there they
29:19
Speaker 7: see a bag, a plastic bag containing cut up clothing.
29:25
Speaker 7: In the bedroom, on the bed itself, they see a laptop.
29:29
Speaker 7: The laptop is covered in blood within bins in the flat,
29:35
Speaker 7: the police found duct tape which appeared as if it
29:38
Speaker 7: had been used to buying somebody's hands and feet, and.
29:44
Speaker 2: In the bathroom, in the sink which had been filled
29:48
Speaker 2: with water, they found various computer devices belonging to Lewis Danes,
29:53
Speaker 2: which he had apparently placed there to try and raise
29:57
Speaker 2: any of the digital evidence, any of the messages and communications,
30:03
Speaker 2: to try and basically destroy the evidence. Danes himself, after
30:09
Speaker 2: killing Breck, had had a shower.
30:16
Speaker 7: He's saying this was self defense. He's saying this was
30:19
Speaker 7: an accident. I didn't mean to kill him. This isn't
30:21
Speaker 7: a murder. If Danes is telling the truth, if this
30:26
Speaker 7: is an accident, why would this computer equipment being water
30:32
Speaker 7: And when we look at what we know about the
30:34
Speaker 7: relationship where they met, it was all online. This would
30:38
Speaker 7: immediately jump out as an apparent attempt to destroy anything
30:43
Speaker 7: that was on the computer essentially, which would mean the
30:47
Speaker 7: communications between the two.
30:52
Speaker 10: The most common fear when somebody is saying self defense
30:56
Speaker 10: is to and a knife's been involved, is to look
30:58
Speaker 10: for defense injuries. Those filled some blood on Lewis Dains.
31:03
Speaker 10: There were no defense injuries. One of the significant factors
31:07
Speaker 10: was the air ambulance actually was arriving as Lewis Daines
31:10
Speaker 10: has been taken out of the police car, and there
31:13
Speaker 10: was clearly a bit of a panic that he thought
31:16
Speaker 10: what happens if Bret Bednar was still alive. The police
31:20
Speaker 10: simply said, we're going to do everything to try and
31:21
Speaker 10: save it, but there was clearly a concern that what
31:25
Speaker 10: he was setting up to be a complete fiction that
31:27
Speaker 10: might be unraveled if somehow Breck had actually survived.
31:34
Speaker 11: Investigators were shocked to learn that Lewis Daines had posted
31:38
Speaker 11: photos of Bre's body online.
31:42
Speaker 1: One of the many disturbing things about what happened is
31:46
Speaker 1: that photos of Bre's dead body were posted online very
31:52
Speaker 1: shortly after he died, and links to these posts were
31:57
Speaker 1: shared with brex family, in particular his siblings, three triplets
32:04
Speaker 1: who were younger. At the same time as they received
32:07
Speaker 1: messages from their friends saying is this true, It's so sad,
32:13
Speaker 1: his parents were receiving a phone call from the police
32:16
Speaker 1: to say that their son had been murdered.
32:20
Speaker 7: The fact that these images could get back so quickly
32:22
Speaker 7: to Breck's family really show the power and the impact
32:26
Speaker 7: social media can have. I can't even begin to put
32:28
Speaker 7: into words, how that would have felt for that family
32:31
Speaker 7: to see their brother, their son in those circumstances. That
32:37
Speaker 7: to me is absolutely tragic.
32:41
Speaker 4: I screamed and screamed and screamed and damaged my vocal cords.
32:46
Speaker 4: I couldn't stop until I was sedated.
32:48
Speaker 5: I felt like.
32:49
Speaker 4: I tried so hard and yet this happened. My job
32:54
Speaker 4: was to protect my children, and I tried. I just
32:58
Speaker 4: didn't get the right help that I needed, and I
33:02
Speaker 4: didn't know what I was up against. To be honest,
33:04
Speaker 4: I didn't recognize even how evil some people can be myself,
33:09
Speaker 4: and so I don't know. You know, I'm not surprised
33:12
Speaker 4: Breck didn't recognize it, because this predator was extremely manipulative
33:18
Speaker 4: and controlling and even tried to control me.
33:24
Speaker 10: At the post mortem, it was later to be shown
33:26
Speaker 10: there were at least four movements of the knife to
33:28
Speaker 10: the fatal wound to the neck, which again wouldn't have
33:31
Speaker 10: happened in a sudden coming together of two people in
33:34
Speaker 10: a fight with a knife. It was quite clear when
33:37
Speaker 10: the duct tape was recovered there were circle as a
33:40
Speaker 10: duct tape which was completely consistent with restraints around the
33:43
Speaker 10: wrists of the arms, and they'd been cut off at
33:47
Speaker 10: some point, and equally, Breck's clothing boxer shorts and a
33:52
Speaker 10: T shirt had been cut off in a way that
33:55
Speaker 10: was entirely consistent with him being constrained. So, in other words,
33:58
Speaker 10: hands tied behind the back, you can't take the T
34:01
Speaker 10: shirt off. Pairs on the inside of the tape showed
34:06
Speaker 10: it was around Breck. There was also blood on the restraints,
34:10
Speaker 10: including some on the underside of the adhesive bit, so
34:14
Speaker 10: again some bleeding from Breck at the time the restraints
34:18
Speaker 10: were put on. There were some more minor injuries as
34:20
Speaker 10: well as the fake injury, so one can just imagine
34:23
Speaker 10: the knife being used to threaten and then put constraints
34:27
Speaker 10: on somebody.
34:49
Speaker 11: December twenty fourteen, preparations are underway for the trial of
34:54
Speaker 11: nineteen year old Lewis Danes, who has been charged with
34:57
Speaker 11: the murder of fourteen year old bre Danes has been
35:01
Speaker 11: grooming Brek for the past year via an online gaming
35:05
Speaker 11: server before luring the team to his flat in Essex,
35:09
Speaker 11: where he stabbed him to death.
35:12
Speaker 7: He had tried to destroy any evidence in terms of
35:17
Speaker 7: communications or anything that could be on computers or phones,
35:21
Speaker 7: but one thing he didn't know is that in Brex rucksack.
35:28
Speaker 7: At the bottom of his rucksack was his iPad. There
35:33
Speaker 7: was information held on there that gave a police a
35:37
Speaker 7: real good indication of the communications between the two.
35:41
Speaker 2: They were able to see just the lengths that Danes
35:45
Speaker 2: had gone to to manipulate Break.
35:49
Speaker 10: Along with the two young men, and that the Lewis
35:52
Speaker 10: Danes had been in touch with and the timing of
35:54
Speaker 10: what their messages were and how and what he was
35:57
Speaker 10: saying to them started to build up a picture that
36:00
Speaker 10: was showing that initial account to be untrue. When he
36:04
Speaker 10: was interviewed, he gave an account, still saying he was
36:09
Speaker 10: acting in defense, but saying there had actually been a
36:12
Speaker 10: sexual liaison between him and Breck for the first time
36:16
Speaker 10: and pretended to be in a consensual relationship, none of
36:21
Speaker 10: which was true.
36:24
Speaker 11: Investigators dig deeper into Danes's background, discovering troubling information.
36:32
Speaker 1: At the point at which Bret Bedner was killed, Lewis
36:36
Speaker 1: Dames was an eighteen year old man living on his
36:40
Speaker 1: own in Gray's in Essex, just outside of London. He
36:44
Speaker 1: had experienced a disrupted, difficult childhood. His parents had separated,
36:51
Speaker 1: but from the age of sixteen, it appears as though
36:54
Speaker 1: he had been living on his own in this flat.
36:59
Speaker 7: Essentially his whole life was online. He was at home
37:05
Speaker 7: playing these games, hosting these games, and spending hours upon
37:09
Speaker 7: hours talking to people who were all generally much younger
37:13
Speaker 7: than him.
37:14
Speaker 2: In twenty eleven, there have been allegations that he'd set she,
37:18
Speaker 2: assaulted or raped another boy. Police had investigated this, they
37:23
Speaker 2: looked into it that they decided not to take any
37:25
Speaker 2: action at the time. But when Breck's mum made the
37:30
Speaker 2: complaint to the police, the police should have looked at
37:35
Speaker 2: the Police National Computer where they would have seen that
37:37
Speaker 2: record of the allegation against Danes from twenty eleven, and
37:42
Speaker 2: they didn't even check the computer to see that. If
37:47
Speaker 2: they had, the alarm bell surely would have rung and
37:51
Speaker 2: the police would have taken action.
37:55
Speaker 11: The prosecution is prepared for a lengthy and complicated trial,
37:59
Speaker 11: but on the first stay at Chelmsford Crown Court, Lewis
38:02
Speaker 11: Staines changes his plea.
38:07
Speaker 10: Lewis Daanes have pleaded not guilty, and it was on
38:09
Speaker 10: the first day of the trial that there was some
38:12
Speaker 10: discussion and he did ultimately then indicate he would plead guilty.
38:19
Speaker 10: He would still get a life sentence but the judge
38:22
Speaker 10: has to set a minimum term that he would have
38:25
Speaker 10: to serve, and two of the significant factors on that
38:29
Speaker 10: is one an intention to kill and two as Brett
38:33
Speaker 10: was a child, that was it sexually or sadistically motivated.
38:38
Speaker 7: And when the judge looked at the circumstances around Breck's death,
38:42
Speaker 7: she concluded that he should be given twenty five years
38:46
Speaker 7: minimum imprisonment.
38:49
Speaker 4: I didn't know what to expect. I didn't expect trial
38:53
Speaker 4: to only last two days. I think it would have
38:56
Speaker 4: been much harder sitting through hours and days of that pain.
39:02
Speaker 5: So in some ways, I'm glad that he changed his plea.
39:05
Speaker 4: Maybe I won't hear every gory detail, but do I
39:08
Speaker 4: really need to.
39:12
Speaker 5: Breck was my.
39:13
Speaker 12: Amazing, clever, beautiful boy, beautiful son who is forever. He
39:18
Speaker 12: had so much potential that he'll never now reach. He
39:21
Speaker 12: had so much to give.
39:23
Speaker 4: To those squirrelds.
39:25
Speaker 12: I want Breck's tragedy to help open the eyes of
39:28
Speaker 12: everyone to recognize the dangers of online predators. It is
39:32
Speaker 12: a very real danger today. We all need to look
39:35
Speaker 12: after each other.
39:38
Speaker 5: We have set up the.
39:38
Speaker 12: Breck Betnar Memorial Foundation to help raise money and awareness
39:42
Speaker 12: to help protect all of our children from danger.
39:45
Speaker 5: Will never stop missing my Breck. Thank you.
39:53
Speaker 4: When I think of it. I think of Breck at
39:55
Speaker 4: that last minute when he realized, wow, you know, I
40:00
Speaker 4: was right, And I hope he knows and remembered how
40:02
Speaker 4: much I loved and cared about him, because if that
40:06
Speaker 4: would have been me, I would have been so scared
40:08
Speaker 4: to be treated that way. And that hurts me so
40:11
Speaker 4: much more because it's a child. And if only Danes
40:15
Speaker 4: hadn't gone after me, I was the one he hated.
40:17
Speaker 4: You know, he was hating me. Why didn't he kill me?
40:21
Speaker 13: I had, you know, lived enough, done enough, been enough places,
40:26
Speaker 13: and I do regret that his you know, crazy actions
40:30
Speaker 13: weren't taken out of me instead.
40:36
Speaker 11: The Breck Bedner Foundation was set up by Lowering LaFave
40:39
Speaker 11: to educate and spread awareness about children's safety online.
40:46
Speaker 4: Over the years, I've tried to use my voice and
40:50
Speaker 4: breck story to try to help other children keep safe online.
40:53
Speaker 4: And when we set up the charity with a bunch
40:55
Speaker 4: of volunteers, it was about bringing about awareness about grooming,
41:00
Speaker 4: the dangers online, that boys can be groomed too, that
41:03
Speaker 4: predators can be any age, that you never know who
41:06
Speaker 4: you're really talking to, and all of those messages were
41:09
Speaker 4: so important, and then we went into education and empowering
41:12
Speaker 4: young people to make safer choices for themselves.
41:17
Speaker 14: What Lauren does and what the Bread Foundation does is
41:21
Speaker 14: hugely important because you know, they did everything right and
41:25
Speaker 14: still they lost a child. And so what they're doing
41:28
Speaker 14: is they're letting people know that all children are at risk.
41:32
Speaker 14: But I do feel passionately that we have to look
41:36
Speaker 14: at this in a broader way. We've got to up
41:40
Speaker 14: our game and we've got to normalize what is healthy
41:45
Speaker 14: for children, what is good for children, They have a
41:48
Speaker 14: right to flourish.
41:50
Speaker 2: I think this case was a wake up call for
41:53
Speaker 2: everyone about the dangers of the online world and gaming
41:57
Speaker 2: in particular, and how people that children might not know,
42:02
Speaker 2: who they've never met, can entrap them and can lure
42:08
Speaker 2: them into dangerous situations.
42:13
Speaker 3: In twenty twenty five, there are forty million gamers active
42:16
Speaker 3: in the UK, which speaks to gaming's incredible power and
42:20
Speaker 3: safety is a huge and urgent topic in video games.
42:26
Speaker 3: The biggest loophole in modern gaming that's making it hard
42:30
Speaker 3: for games developers are side channels, so chats that happen
42:34
Speaker 3: off platform if you move into discord or telegram, visa
42:40
Speaker 3: spaces that game designers just can't reach, so they can't
42:44
Speaker 3: build safety tools for their players. We know how to
42:48
Speaker 3: create safe shopping malls, we know how to create safe
42:51
Speaker 3: play parks, and we need to learn how to apply
42:55
Speaker 3: those lessons into a digital space. Just because it's in
42:59
Speaker 3: a game doesn't mean that it is not real.
43:03
Speaker 6: Rex family have turned agony into action and you know,
43:11
Speaker 6: despair into trying to, you know, make change.
43:16
Speaker 5: And I think you have to admire that.
43:18
Speaker 6: And you have to thank them for that.
43:22
Speaker 4: There are so many issues that children are struggling with now,
43:26
Speaker 4: with content being sent to them that's inappropriate, pushing eating
43:30
Speaker 4: disorders on them, the bullying, the grooming, this exploitation.
43:34
Speaker 5: I mean, the list goes on and on.
43:36
Speaker 4: And what I would say to people, start off small,
43:41
Speaker 4: start off carefully, and don't think you have to do
43:43
Speaker 4: what everybody else does. Because children need rights of passage,
43:47
Speaker 4: they need boundaries, they need a childhood, and we have
43:51
Speaker 4: lost our children's childhood for them. They have had it
43:54
Speaker 4: taken away and they need to play outside, they need
43:58
Speaker 4: to enjoy nature. They don't need devices in their hands.
44:03
Speaker 5: I try to.
44:03
Speaker 4: Live a life that's normal. But every day is hard,
44:07
Speaker 4: and I hate every minute of missing.
44:10
Speaker 5: Breck, and I miss him most minutes.
44:14
Speaker 4: I miss knowing what he would have really done, I
44:16
Speaker 4: miss hearing his voice, and I miss his sense of humor.
44:20
Speaker 4: And I just miss him because he was innately a
44:23
Speaker 4: good person