Robin Williams poses with friends on the 91st birthday of comedian Marty Allen at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, California
Robin Williams (2nd L) poses with friends on the 91st birthday of comedian Marty Allen (3rd L) at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, California in this March 2013 handout photo released to Reuters August 14, 2014. From left are Mort Sahl, Williams, Allen, Mark Pitta, Allen's wife Karon Kate Blackwell, and Lucy Mercer, owner of Throckmorton Theatre.Williams was the only person who came backstage to see him when satirist Mort Sahl gave a show 17 years ago, and the 87-year-old comic said it marked the start of a close friendship that ended with the comedian's apparent suicide this week. Sahl, sometimes considered the godfather of stand-up political comedy, told about 80 people at an informal tribute to Williams on Thursday night that he had been expecting hordes of fans eager to tell him how much they had loved his show. REUTERS/Jonah Hopton/Throckmor

A U.S. court convicted former nurse William Melchert-Dinkel on Tuesday, Sept. 9, of helping a Canadian student and a British man commit suicide.

Melchert-Dinkel was convicted of helping 32-year-old Mark Drybrough from Coventry, England kill himself. Drybrough hanged himself in 2005, and the district judge ruled that there was enough evidence given by the state to prove Melchert-Dinkel's direct involvement in the British man's suicide. The 52-year-old ex-nurse, on the other hand, faced lesser charges in connection with Canadian student Nadia Kajouji's suicide. Neuville said that there was not enough evidence against Melchert-Dinkel to prove that his efforts had been a direct influence on the suicide of the 18-year-old Ontario student. Kajouji jumped in a frozen Ottawa river in 2008. Melchert-Dinkel was, nevertheless, convicted of "trying" to help her kill herself.

Melchert-Dinkel was convicted by Rice County district judge Thomas Neuville who finally ended a legal battle which ran for more than four years. The ruling also reversed some parts of a state law in Minnesota that made such practice illegal. The Minnesota Supreme Court referred to the state law in March and put Melchert-Dinkel's conviction on hold. The Supreme Court said that the law, which outlawed encouraging suicides, was unconstitutional as it would broadly restrict free speech.

The sentencing hearing for Melchert-Dinkel was scheduled to take place on Oct 15. Neuville was the same judge who had convicted the former nurse in 2011. The district judge did the latest ruling on Monday but it was not released until Tuesday.

"The Defendant did not physically assist either Drybrough or Kajouji in taking their own life," the ruling said. "However, there is significant evidence that the Defendant assisted Drybrough, and attempted to assist Kajouji, commit suicide by providing them with specific instructions and methodology for completing the suicide."

According to prosecutors, Melchert-Dinkel posed as a female nurse and chatted with depressed people in chat rooms. There is also evidence that he gave detailed instructions to people online on how to commit suicide and was believed to have entered fake suicide pacts, several of whom Melchert-Dinkel says killed themselves. After Christmas in 2008, Melchert-Dinkel stopped chatting on the Internet, claiming he "felt terrible" after he succeeded in helping people kill themselves, BBC reported.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au