The parents of a teenager who fell victim to a ‘sextortion’ scam have shared the text message their son received from an international scammer before he took his life.
Rohan Cosgriff, was 17 when he was found dead in Ballarat, about 115 km north-west of Melbourne in July 2022.
The teenager had earlier been ‘befriended’ by a scammer from Nigeria who pretended to be a girl and pressured him into sending an explicit photo.
The extortionist then threatened to send the photo to everyone Rohan knew if he didn’t pay$1,000.
Speaking to 7News Spotlight, Rohan’s parents, Beck and Anthony Cosgriff, shared their son had received an intimate photo from the scammer “completely out of the blue”.
“This person had sent an intimate photo of themselves and was pressuring Ro to send one back, very much an ‘I showed you mine, you show me yours now’ situation,” Ms Cosgriff told the program.
“He hadn’t wanted to, and then there was a lot of pressure on him to do it. Eventually, he did send a photo, and then it started from that point onwards.”
Rohan told the scammer he didn’t have the money, explaining” “I’m just 17. I’m a kid. This is illegal.”
“According to the policeman, the pressure that was put on him was immense. And that it was within an hour of him first being asked for money,” Ms Cosgriff added.
Before Rohan took his life, the teenager received a chilling message from the scammer, reading:“Right, now you’ve got half an hour until we ruin your life”.
“That was just before he took his life,” his father explained.
On the night of Rohan’s death, Mr Cosgriff was doing paperwork on his computer when his wife noticed their son wasn’t in his room.
“Beck went to say goodnight to Rohan and came out and said, ‘where’s Rohan?’,” he revealed.
The pair began searching the house and horse stables, and tried to call his son’s phone but it rang out.
“I was starting to get a bad feeling,” said Mr Cosgriff.
“I thought I’ll just go over and check what we call the oval, which was the grassy area where we always played ball games next to the house.”
There, Mr Cosgriff found Rohan’s body, giving him CPR until paramedics arrived.
“They (paramedics) worked on him for a long time and we just sat in the car watching, just waiting until they said that they couldn’t get him back,” said Ms Cosgriff.
But they weren’t able to save him.
“I went inside and I didn’t want Rohan to be cold, so I just grabbed his doona,” said Ms Cosgriff.
“We had a pillow as well, and just put the pillow under his head and we just laid down with him in the rain and just patted his hair and told him we loved him,” her husband added.
The next day, police found a note inside Rohan’s bedroom.
“I’m sorry. I’ve made a huge mistake. I love you all so much,” it read.
At the time, the family were unsure of “the huge mistake” their son was referring to, unaware of what had been playing out.
It wasn’t until two months later that officers from Ballarat Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team were able to access Roha’s mobile phone and find a series of messages on social media accounts linked to Nigeria.
An investigation into Rohan’s death in July 2022 had been launched by Victoria Police, which alerted the Australian Federal Police in October 2022. But according to Spotlight, an official referral was never made.
In a statement to Spotlight, Victoria Police said the case information has been forwarded to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation which is “undertaking further assessment of the matter”.
“The further crucial technical data … is still being analysed as part of the current investigation.”
Almost two years on from Rohan’s death, his parents said the traditional message to teenagers of “don’t send explicit images” needs to be followed with the reminder: “If you do, it’s not the end of the world. We can fix it.”
“The reality is lots of kids send d*** pics. They just do. They shouldn’t. It’s a silly thing to do. But they get caught up in the moment for whatever reason. People need to know it can be dealt with, that they’re not committing the crime. Someone else is committing a crime against them,” said Ms Cosgriff.
“Rohan was a victim of crime and he’s dead because of it.”