When Lorin walked into Breck’s room, he’d say, “My mum’s come in.” While the other boys would go quiet – a mum is enough to silence most teenage boys, Daynes would say, ‘Hey, Mum!’ and start some banter. “To Breck, who still had his baby teeth and saw no evil in the world, Daynes seemed very cool, very exciting,” says Lorin. Other times, he was in Dubai, or off to Syria. Sometimes he was in New York, working for the US government. He claimed to be a 17-year-old computer engineer running a multimillion pound company. While the other members were known to Breck or his friends, Lewis Daynes was not someone they knew in real life. I could hear everything they were saying – I loved hearing Breck’s laugh – and there was nothing very sinister.”Įxcept for one thing – the ringmaster, whose server they played on. “I have to say, I’d rather sit and talk face to face but I could see why they liked it. “There was a gaming screen where they might be on a battlefield, a screen with icons for the boys who were online and another screen for live messaging, with images or music or YouTube clips – whatever they were talking about. “Breck’s bedroom door was always open and he’d sit, with headphones on,” says Lorin. At 14, he was invited into an online gaming group – a ‘virtual clubhouse’ – by school friends.

He’d come home, get his homework done, his chores out of the way, then go online.” “He never yelled, swore, slammed the door. Though Breck excelled in school and was an A* student, Lorin describes him as chilled. He was very resourceful, saving birthday and Christmas money, selling and exchanging parts.” “He dismantled and rebuilt them,” says Lorin.

He was in the ‘Lego gang’ – a little group who made rockets and guns and ran around playing out little fantasies.” “At school, Breck wasn’t with the footballers, he wasn’t competitive.

“From the start, Breck loved fixing things, taking them apart, putting them together,” says Lorin. Though Barry and Lorin separated in 2006, Barry remained close, having the children every other weekend. Two years later, their triplets were born – Carly, Chloe and Sebastian, now 14. Breck was born in 1999 – his American parents, Lorin and Barry, had come to the UK two years before for Barry’s work as an oil trader. Lorin’s story starts with a son who, like so many other boys, loved gaming.

Real life gaming