Man Impersonating Bring Me the Horizon Vocalist Jailed for Stabbing Woman
It's been a rough week for Bring Me the Horizon vocalist Oli Sykes. First, he deals with an onstage melee in Salt Lake City. Now, it's been revealed that a 20-year-old man who pretended to be Sykes in order to lure an American woman to his lair has been jailed for life after stabbing the woman and slicing her throat. It's one of the most classic Internet fears come true. Thankfully, the victim survived.
The Daily Mail reports that David Russell has been jailed for life for kidnapping and attempting to murder Maricar Benedicto, 19, who hails from California. He will serve a minimum of 17-and-a-half years in prison. Russell impersonated Sykes on Facebook and engaged in Skype chats with Benedicto, convincing her to cross the ocean to meet him. It's worth noting that Russell looks nothing like Sykes, who sports a throat tattoo, among many others. Reports indicated that Benedicto realized he was not Sykes, but still followed through with her plan to meet him.
The prosecutor Christopher Donnellan laid out Russell's actions. This is not for the weak of heart, so don't ready any further if you have a soft stomach, either. Donnellan said, "He took her to an area of woodland off White Lane. He asked her to sit down on a fallen tree trunk and said he was going to blindfold her and said she would get a surprise or a present. He stood behind her, blindfolded her, asked her to put her head back, and her arms up. Although she did not see any implement because of the blindfold, the next thing she felt was her neck being sliced."
Benedicto tried to run away, but Russell, who worked at McDonalds and had used the Internet to search topics like "how to cut skin with a knife" and "the best knife to kill," caught her and then stabbed her multiple times. He then fled, while Benedicto sought help. He only stopped the attack when Benedicto, who used the alias Ruby Townsend, told him she had supplied his name to immigration when she arrived in the U.K.
Yikes. Thankfully she survived the vicious, brutal attack. It's a shame that Russell sullied Oli Sykes' good name with this scheme.