Man found not guilty of encouraging teen's suicide

Christopher Ballard has been discharged from Bradford Crown Court after the verdict

A Bradford man has been cleared of a charge of encouraging the suicide of a 14-year-old girl who took her own life in the Netherlands.

Christopher Ballard, 43, had been messaging Gina van Houten on an online chat forum between February and March 2018, and appeared to agree to a "suicide pact" between them.

When Mr Ballard was arrested in December 2020 he said had never contacted Gina, but later admitted he did but thought it was part of a fantasy role play game.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court was sent out for deliberations on Monday and returned the following day to find the defendant not guilty.

Plastics factory worker Mr Ballard's last message to Gina was on 4 March 2018 and she took her own life just over three weeks later.

During his trial, Nick Johnson KC, Mr Ballard's defence counsel, said his client's autistic spectrum disorder meant he thought Gina's messages were not serious but part of a "fantasy" game.

Mr Johnson also said that Gina "was deliberately unclear as to whether she was serious or not".

Mrs Justice Lambert had stressed to the jury before she sent them to deliberate that Gina's suicide note was written on her laptop in January 2018 and that she took her own life 24 days after her last communication with Mr Ballard.

She told jurors: "We do not know how she was feeling, what made her feel that way, who she had communicated with."

After the jury returned their verdict, Mr Ballard was discharged from the dock and left the court with his parents.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.