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Attorney says suicides were already planned

A defence attorney for a Minnesota man charged with aiding the suicides of two people says they already had plans to take their lives and his client’s online conversations with them had no impact.

FARIBAULT, Minn. — A defence attorney for a Minnesota man charged with aiding the suicides of two people says they already had plans to take their lives and his client’s online conversations with them had no impact.

Forty-eight-year-old William Melchert-Dinkel faces two counts of aiding suicide in the deaths of an English man and a Canadian woman.

Prosecutors say Melchert-Dinkel used the Internet to prey on vulnerable people and encouraged them to take their lives.