One of the most shocking Internet-related cases in recent times involved Lori Drew and her daughter Sarah Drew, who are guilty of having cyber-bullied 13-year-ld Megan Meier into suicide. Lori Drew created a fake MySpace account, which she used to torment Megan, first posing as a 16-year-old boy, Josh, pretending to like the girl. The alleged purpose was to find out if Megan had been bad-mouthing her daughter, Sarah, with which Megan had apparently had a falling out.

It seems that after Lori Drew got all the information she wanted, it was time for “Josh” to end it with Megan. Among the messages received by Megan from the fake account were some of the cruelest teenagers can hear, such as “the world would be better off without you.” This message was also the last one received by Megan, and it was the one after which Megan committed suicide by hanging herself in her room, where she was later on discovered by her parents. Lori Drew stated that there have been other people meddling with the fake account, and that she herself was not responsible for all the messages sent by “Josh” to Megan.

Lori Drew could have been sentenced to serve up to 20 years in prison, if she had been convicted of all the charges that had originally been brought to her. However, she now faces a maximum penalty of three years in a state prison – it’s even possible that she will serve much less.

The jury agreed that she was guilty of three misdemeanor computer-related crimes, yet they deadlocked on the conspiracy charge. The charge may be re-filed.