Breck Bednar friend: 'Murderer told me he'd killed him'
- Published
Breck was murdered in February 2014 by a man he met through online gaming
A friend of murdered schoolboy Breck Bednar says the killer contacted him online straight after the death.
"At first I was in disbelief and I thought maybe it was like a joke in poor taste," Tom tells Newsbeat.
It wasn't a joke. Lewis Daynes is now serving a life sentence for 14-year-old Breck's murder.
Daynes lured Breck to his Essex flat in February 2014 and stabbed him to death, after spending months chatting and playing games with him online.
The murderer initially tried to pass it off as an accident.
Tom also played online games with Daynes but had never met him
"He said Breck had been depressed, suicidal and confiding in him, which is why he came over, and that in attempting to stop Breck from self-harming he ended up dead - which obviously was complete rubbish.
"This was about 10am in the morning. I think he actually spoke to me before he called the police, from what I know.
"I said, 'This is a joke, it's not funny,' and then I said, 'Well you need to call the police then if this is an accident - and the ambulance.' He said, 'Yeah, yeah I'll do that.'"
Daynes did phone 999. He told the call handler: "My friend and I got into an altercation and I am the only one who came out alive."
Breck spent hours playing games such as Battlefield and Call of Duty
Breck's friends and family are now telling their story in a BBC Three documentary, Murder Games.
Daynes hosted the Minecraft server that Tom and another of Breck's friends, Matt, used to play on.
They say Daynes didn't ring any alarm bells at the time.
"I was introduced to Lewis through Breck and so, because you're being introduced by someone you know in real life, your guard instantly drops," Tom explains.
"You don't even question it really, you just assume that they're an OK person."
"I guess we thought of him as a role model really," Matt says. "I used to speak to Lewis about IT certifications, what I could do if I wanted to leave college."
In the months before Breck's death, his mother noticed his behaviour changing and started worrying about Daynes' influence.
She raised concerns about grooming to Surrey Police but they didn't take any action.
An investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission found in November that the call handler and their supervisor lacked the knowledge to deal with grooming reports.
"The thing about Lewis, he was never very direct with his grooming. He was, I guess, patient," says Tom.
Matt says he can't imagine how he will ever truly move on from what happened
"You didn't really see it coming, you didn't really notice because it was very subtle, unlike what you're educated against, like direct-like 'send me pictures' and things like that."
Daynes, a computer engineer, now 20, had promised Breck a job and help to upgrade his computer.
"He didn't even ask me my name, he never asked me where I lived, just nothing really," Tom recalls.
"He seemed like a really genuine nice person through the gaming. We had a good laugh together quite often.
"I suppose I was a lot more naive when I was younger, but looking back I'd say no I didn't really have any alarm bells going off in my head."
Lewis Daynes is serving a life sentence for Breck's murder
Matt says he doesn't think he can ever move on from what's happened.
"The times when I was at the lowest [were] mainly at school where a class would be completely quiet.
"I'd be just sat there doing work and my mind would just drift off, and this happened for a year.
"The only time I was able to escape from it was when I had my friends [around].
"I just still don't understand why you would wait for so long and make such good friends with someone, especially Breck, just to murder them and try and hurt them."
Murder Games: The Life and Death of Breck Bednar is on BBC Three on Tuesday 26 January at 9pm.
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