Ex-Nurse Jailed for Urging Suicide on Web

A former nurse in Minnesota who persuaded at least two people he met online to commit suicide has been sentenced to 360 days in jail. William Melchert-Dinkel, 48, posed as a female nurse in chat rooms and was found guilty earlier this year of aiding the suicides of a Canadian woman and an English man, the BBC reports. Melchert-Dinkel acknowledged entering suicide pacts he never intended to keep with 10 people, five of whom he believes killed themselves.

Melchert-Dinkel was obsessed with suicide and loved the "thrill of the chase," prosecutors said. The judge ordered him to spend an initial 320 days in jail now and return to prison for two-day spells on the anniversaries of the two victims' deaths for the next 10 years. Melchert-Dinkel offered a statement in which he said he was filled with remorse, although his lawyers says he plans to appeal the sentence on free speech ground. (More William Melchert-Dinkel stories.)