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US man faces legal action over "suicide tourism" sites
Paul Whitehouse A BRITISH woman travelled to Cambodia to commit suicide after visiting computer websites promoting the country as a venue for those wanting to end their own lives.
The death of Kim Walton, 47, is the latest suicide linked to internet websites that encourage the vulnerable to kill themselves.
The Yorkshire Post has revealed details of a string of deaths in this country where people have ended their lives after getting information from websites or chatrooms.
Among those was Carina Stephenson, 17, from Doncaster, whose mother, Liz Taylor, is campaigning to get such websites banned.
She is organising a petition, supported by the Yorkshire Post, demanding the Government takes action to prevent access to such material.
After Carina's death details of a string of other cases emerged, including Simon Lee, 32, from Barnsley.
Now government officials in Cambodia have confirmed they are taking legal action against a man linked to two websites touting the country as a venue for the suicidal.
Californian Roger Graham, 57, faces a defamation suit from the state over the sites, which have since been closed down.
Mrs Walton visited the country and took her life there.
The governor of the coastal province of Kampot has announced he is to sue euthanasia activist MrGraham, who runs a coffee bar there.
The sites both promoted the fact there were no euthanasia laws in the country and one carried the banner "You are going to die anyway. Why not Cambodia?"
It is alleged Mrs Walton was attracted from her UK home by the sites and contacted a man called "Tola" before flying to Cambodia.
The authorities say the name is an alias for Mr Graham and he has confirmed that he communicated with Mrs Walton.
He accepts she visited his coffee bar but insists she never identified herself to him while in Cambodia.
The Cambodian authorities got involved after Mrs Walton's sister complained.
Mrs Walton was found dead in a guest house in Kampot, 115 miles south-west of the capital Phnom Penh, in September. A bottle of pills was found next to her body.
"The websites say that Cambodia is a good and easy place if you want to kill yourself. We do not need that publicity. We believe he is also breaking the law," said Kampot deputy police chief In Chiva.
Roger Graham, who runs the riverside Blue Mountain Coffee shop and internet cafe in Kampot, said: "I have shut down the websites now.
"Yes, I did get e-mails from this woman, who said she would like to come to Cam-bodia. And I responded to those e-mails under the name Tola.
"She came to Cambodia and came to my cafe but she never identified herself to me and I gave her no advice. Now I am the subject of all sorts of grief."
In the UK, the Home Office said it is working on voluntary agreements with internet service providers in an attempt to control material.
One possibility is to programme search engines to produce names for organisations like the Samaritans in preference to sinister websites when they are asked for information on suicide.
paul.whitehouse@ypn.co.uk 08.11.05
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