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An internet troll who posted videos and messages mocking the deaths of teenagers, including a girl hit by a train, has been jailed.
Sean Duffy, 25, targeted Facebook tribute pages and posted videos on YouTube taunting the dead and their families.
Among his victims was Natasha MacBryde, 15, who died instantly when hit by a passenger train near her home in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.
The day after Natasha's death in February, Duffy posted comments including "I fell asleep on the track lolz" on the Facebook tribute page created by her brother James, 17.
Four days later he created a YouTube video called "Tasha the Tank Engine" featuring her face superimposed on to the front of the fictional engine.
Duffy, who is unemployed and did not know any of his victims, pleaded guilty to two counts of sending malicious communications relating to Natasha.
He asked for three other cases of Facebook trolling – posting offensive messages on the internet – to be taken into consideration when he appeared before magistrates in Reading, Berkshire.
Jailing him for 18 weeks, the chair of the bench, Paul Warren, told him: "You have caused untold distress to already grieving friends and family.
"The offences are so serious only a custodial sentence could be justified."
There really are some vile people out there.
It's good to see the courts are taking this kind of thing seriously though...