Man who invented suicide 'game' aimed at children says his victims who kill themselves are 'biological waste'

The man behind a sick 'suicide game' aimed at children has been inundated with love letters from teenage girls addressed to him at a Russian jail where he is in custody.

Philipp Budeikin is being held on charges of inciting at least 16 schoolgirls to kill themselves by taking part in his social media craze called Blue Whale - which police fear is spreading to Britain.

The Russian 21-year-old - who has now confessed to the crimes - says he thinks of his victims as 'biological waste' and told police that they were 'happy to die' and he was 'cleansing society'.

The lethal game called Blue Whale involves brainwashing vulnerable teenagers over a period of 50 days, urging them to complete tasks from watching horror movies to waking at strange hours, and self harming.

Eventually exhausted and confused, they are told to commit suicide, and it is feared in Russia that dozens have done so at the bidding of Budeikin or other 'mentors'.

In Britain, a school in Essex had made parents aware of the game following talks with police.

Police forces in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire have urged parents to monitor their child's social media.

Russian prison authorities say they have received dozens of love letters from teenage girls for the suspect at notorious Kresty jail in St Petersburg, which they passed on to him since he was held in November pending a trial.

Worringly, by law they say they cannot ban Budeikin - also known by the name Philipp Lis (meaning Fox) - from receiving and replying to teenage girls who supply their addresses.

Psychologist Veronika Matyushina said: 'Most likely, those young girls who fell in love with Philip Lis were not receiving enough love and attention from their parents, and this handsome young man from the Internet provided certain support for them and gave that attention they needed.

'This is where romantic feelings were born.'

Some estimates say hundreds of Russian teenagers - the vast majority female - have died after becoming fixated with these online death groups.

A disturbing video purports to show one Russian girl jumping to her death.

Anton Breido, a senior official from the Investigative Committee, seen as an equivalent of the FBI, warned: 'Budeikin very clearly knew what he had to do to get the result (he wanted).

'He started in 2013 and ever since he has polished his tactics and corrected his mistakes. Philipp and his aides at first attracted children into VK (social media) groups by using mega-scary videos.

'Their task was to attract as many children as possible, then figure out those who would be the most affected by psychological manipulation.

'Say, out of 20,000 people, they knew 'their' audience would be only 20 people.

'"Biological waste" is how death group administrators referred to children they pushed to commit suicide.'

He explained how the deadly process worked.

'They gathered the children, then offered simple tasks which for some children were too boring or weird to complete.

'These ones were clearly too strong to be manipulated.

'Those who stayed were given much stronger tasks like cutting their veins, to balance on a roof top, to kill an animal and post a video or pictures to prove it.

'Most children left at this stage.

'A small group that was left who obediently went through all the tasks, with teenagers being physiologically ready to follow whatever the administrators told them, no matter how strange or scary the tasks.

'They felt their position in the group was so precious that did literally everything to stay in.

'One of the troubles for us was that 15 children who committed suicide at administrator's orders were told to delete all correspondence in their social media accounts, which they all did.'

However, one unidentified girl went through to the final stage of the game before giving up, and she provided state investigators with crucial evidence.

He revealed how easy it was to succumb to Budeikin's trap.

'Like all other teenagers, she spent a lot of time in social networks. She saw a link to click a scary picture, then another, and finally reached one of the groups promoting suicide organised by Philipp.

'There were thousands of such groups so it was really easy to join one of them, she said.