A coroner has called for greater policing of the internet after two strangers arranged a suicide pact.

Alan Craze said web chatrooms allowed criminals to hide behind fake identities and posed a threat to vulnerable adults and children.

He spoke after two men living hundreds of miles apart arranged to meet at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, and one leapt to his death.

Mr Craze, the coroner for East Sussex, said yesterday: "The media regularly give us examples of fraud, deception and sexual offences being committed with the use of the internet.

"And now, and I hope it never happens again, there is this case of encouraging, aiding and abetting, assisting the suicide of another.

"The response can only be to put greater police resources into the detection and deterrence of internet crime and for the public at large to exercise increasing vigilance if children and others start to show signs of undue influence following the use of the internet."

Last week, computer giant Microsoft closed most of its chatrooms after a string of cases where paedophiles used chatrooms to groom youngsters for sexual abuse.

Mr Craze heard how Michael Gooden, 35, arranged to jump off Beachy Head with Louis Gillies, 36, after the pair via a chatroom called Assisted Suicide Holidays (ASH).

Both had discussed suicide on the site, which lists the best ways and places for people to take their life, before they met in Eastbourne on June 5 last year.

Postal worker Mr Gooden, of Camberwell New Road, south London, who used the name assureme while online, jumped from the notorious 500ft cliffs.

However, Mr Gillies, from Glasgow, did not follow suit after receiving a mobile phone call from a friend horrified at his plans.

Mr Gillies was charged with aiding and abetting Mr Gooden's suicide but was found hanged in his flat on the first day of his trial at Lewes Crown Court.

The inquest heard how Mr Gooden and Mr Gillies met at the Beachy Head Hotel on June 5.

The pair had a meal before walking towards the cliff edge in dense fog where Mr Gooden leapt to his death.

Mr Gillies told police he had received the phone call from a friend who persuaded him not to jump but that Mr Gooden could not be talked out.

Following the death, Mr Gillies posted a message on the ASH site.

It read: "I would just like to let you know that assureme has caught the bus. He was very determined.

"He did not flinch. He ran over the precipice in unbelievable meteorological conditions. Inspirational, poignant, mesmerising. I hope he has found peace."

The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.