Family of teenage boy caught up in ‘sextortion plot’ break their silence after he was jailed for killing a grandmother

A mother has broken her silence on how an online ‘sextortion’ scam led to her teenage son killing an innocent grandmother during a failed suicide attempt.

The teenager – then aged 17 – drove his Toyota LandCruiser into oncoming traffic, hitting a car at more than 100km/h in Corbould Park on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

The teenager survived the crash with minor injuries, but 63-year-old grandmother Karen Malcolm was killed instantly in the head-on collision as she drove home from work on August 9, 2022.

Now Queensland mum Mary has revealed her son Jack tried to kill himself after being caught in a blackmail plot in which he tried to shame him into handing over cash.

Mary explained that the teenager, now 19, admitted on his hospital bed that he had tried to take his own life after falling prey to the scammer just days before the crash.

Jack revealed that he had exchanged nude photos of himself with a girl he had never met named Amber Rose via the social media platform Snapchat.

The scammer, posing as the young girl, gained Jack’s trust and convinced him to send the images Courier mail reported.

After the photos were sent, the scammer threatened to make the images public.

Jack, who was about to enter his final year of business school, was told to wire $900 in exchange for keeping his photos private.

He transferred the full amount to the scammer – of which he borrowed $200 from a friend – but the scammer sent an image to one of his friends.

The distraught teenager begged the scammer to stop and threatened to take his own life.

“I hope you sleep better knowing you killed me,” Jack wrote to the scammer.

Mary said her son “burst into tears” when she told him he had killed a woman.

“He kept saying ‘what, what, someone died’ and ‘oh my God, I took someone’s life, I can’t believe this,'” she said Courier mail.

The mother-of-four added that she had a very open relationship with Jack and believes he felt so ashamed because he was such a “good boy” and didn’t seek help.

A week after the fatal accident, the scammer tried to extort even more money from Jack, but the teen immediately showed his mother the messages.

Grandmother Karen Malcolm, 63, (pictured) was killed on her way home from work when Jack’s car veered into her lane and crashed into her car

The family called police and the money was traced to another victim in Melbourne.

“It turned out he was being blackmailed into taking the money and then passing it on to the scammers in the form of Apple (gift) cards,” Mary said.

“The person who blackmailed Jack was in Nigeria or something. They threatened to do the same to the man in Melbourne if he didn’t pass on the money.’

She explained that her son wanted to complete his internship before becoming a police officer, but that dream was shattered by his prison sentence.

The teenager pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday and was jailed for a minimum of 18 months of three years.

“I hope he learns a lot and that he has a lot of time to think and learn and that he makes himself a better person and that he comes out and has a productive and successful life,” Mary said.

Jack was contacted on Snapchat by a scammer who disguised himself as a young woman named Amber Rose. The scammer convinced him to send nude photos of himself and then threatened to make the images public if he didn’t pay $900.

A psychological report presented in court said Jack experienced an acute stress response at the time of the crash and the intense distress caused him to dissociate.

Judge Peter Davis told the court he accepted Jack’s explanation that he was so upset by an extortion scheme that he tried to end his own life by causing an accident in which he ‘hoped to die’.

Last year, Aussies lost more than $13.8 million to threats and extortion, according to the ACCC’s Scamwatch.

The majority of victims were 24 years old or younger, with nearly $7 million lost through social networking and mobile phone applications.

Data from Scamwatch showed that victims under the age of 24 were also unlikely to report the scam to authorities, with only 610 reports out of a total of 7,876.