Autistic schoolboy hanged himself after falling for scam 'police' email saying he had looked at indecent websites

Tragic: Joseph Edwards 

An autistic schoolboy hanged himself after receiving a bogus "police" email claiming he had been looking at illegal websites and must pay a £100 fine.

Joseph Edwards was more susceptible to believing the scam was genuine because of his disability, a coroner heard today.

The 17-year-old A-level student was found hanged at his home by his mum, who has since launched a campaign to make children more aware of the dangers from internet scams.

Joseph received the online spam message, claiming to be from Cheshire Police, which said he had been visiting illegal websites with indecent images on his computer and would have to pay a large sum of money to avoid officers taking action.

However, the youngster took the bogus message to be for real because of his autism, leading him to hang himself at his family home in Windsor, Berks., the inquest heard.

He was found by his mother Jacqueline in August last year.

She told the hearing at Windsor Guildhall: "He was generally happy and had just started new friendship circles and was enjoying himself.

Joseph's mum said in a statement: "The internet is an amazing thing, but it can also be dangerous and I want parents to make sure their children are aware of this sort of scam, especially autistic children, because they will not understand."