Parents of an 18 year old who committed suicide after being blackmailed over Facebook are pressing charges against the culprit, despite their identity not yet being known.

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The teenager, named just as Gauthier in the press, from Brest, hung himself in the family garden at the beginning of the month after being blackmailed for €200 by a girl he met on website Chatroulette.

She threatened him via Facebook with publishing a naked video of him recorded from Chatroulette if he did not hand over the money, according to le Parisien.

“The family are pressing charges against X in an attempt to find out who is responsible for threatening and blackmailing Gautier,” said Bernard Salaün, a police officer in Brest.

“A police inquiry is underway to try to determine where these messages came from.”

The teenager’s computer is being looked at by police, and the judicial department of Facebook has also been contacted.

Some French papers have reported the messages came from Abidjan, the Ivory Coast capital.

Salaün confirmed the police had received similar complaints where the blackmailer came from the Ivory Coast, but they had had no such leads for Gauthier’s case.

Gauthier’s parents spoke to local press over the weekend to warn others about abuse on the internet.

“He came home from college early on Wednesday afternoon... He went to his room, taking his laptop with him,” said his mother.

“Like all teenagers, his room was his universe. I went up to see him at about 4pm and he told me to leave him alone.

“At about 5pm I saw him go out. He didn’t seem as if he was quite all there.”