Munchausen by Internet

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Whatever happened to Ahab's Other Leg?! (Pun intended.)

It was the drink son, the drink.

[guruilla]

Call, and ye shall be answered.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

It's actually kind of terrifying when you see threads like this getting bumped up to the front page again, after many years. Seeing your own opinions from long (enough) ago, still inscribed there in the digital stone. And feeling lightly embarassed by them.

I don't think I would judge parents now as harshly as I judged them then, even though my actual judgements on the matter have barely changed (the concerted medicalisation of the fact that children often - and even constantly - act like children is still silly, and in many cases massively damaging). It's only natural that parents see every deviation from a prescribed norm as potentially ruinous and devastating down the line though - solid vein-freezing breezeblock anxiety is apparently part of the parenting process - but it galls me when frauds blatantly play on this, as they've always done.

I still wonder why these parents don't spend the majority of their time reading up about bowel defects and other basic and curable physical ailments, which are far more likely to afflict their child than psychopathy.

Guruilla, I think I stumbled across a book that you've got out recently, on Scribd or Google Book previews. I wasn't e-stalking you or anything, I just came across it in the course of my wanderings, after reading a bit of your Yorkshire thread. I wouldn't want to say too much about it in case it wasn't actually by you, but just wanted to say it was very well written, evocative, and particularly fascinating to me because I think I lack whatever higher function it is that lets people get into the metaphysical, occult, esoteric, higher-theory, avant-garde side of things.

It was good reading anyway. I'm going to regret writing this bit if it turns out it was only by A. N. Wilson or something. But it seemed a lot better than that.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Back on topic, here is a case that's local to me, and should give every living person pause.

The conwoman in this case (an amateur, not a professional) did not just make up an illness for herself to suffer from, or for her child to suffer from, but created an illness for a beloved fictional person to suffer from - and then a fictional stem cell trial, a fictional government cover-up, a fictional threat of assassination, and then a fictional denouement with two dupes literally dead by their own hands.

The case is so convoluted and bizarre that I think this bare-bones article from a known tabloid rag, shitely-written though it is, actually does the story better justice than the broadsheets could:

Woman pleads guilty to bizarre fraud plot that deceived online boyfriend and ended in mother and daughter killing themselves

06:00, 18 Sep 2015
Updated 08:05, 18 Sep 2015
By Sally Hind

.

A MOTHER and daughter killed themselves in a horrific suicide pact after a warped fraudster trapped them in a staggeringly bizarre web of threats and lies.


And yesterday, the full extent of Linsey Cotton’s heartless deception was laid bare in court.

Cotton, a single mother of two from West Lothian, invented a phantom girlfriend, a bogus stem cell trial, a fictitious murdering doctor and a non-existent government cover-up.

And she conjured up a whole cast of characters for her charade.

Cotton, 33, used 15 phones, two laptops and two tablet computers to convince her victims she was more than a dozen different people. At various points, she played a nurse, a barrister and government officials.

Her scam netted her nearly £5000 and a hoard of expensive gifts. But she also terrorised Margaret McDonough and daughter Nicola – until they checked into a Premier Inn, took pills and slashed themselves.

Margaret, 52, died within hours of being found at the Greenock hotel
on May 10, 2013. Nicola, 23, passed away three days later.

In the run-up to the tragedy, Cotton had convinced the women they faced 20 years in prison and turned their son and brother against them. Her lawyer said she was sorry.

Cotton began her scheme a year before the double suicide by ensnaring Margaret’s son Michael, a 33-year-old RAF corporal who served at Lossiemouth in Moray.

In May 2012, she joined dating site Plenty of Fish – using the name and photo of her stepsister Steph, who had nothing to do with the scam.

Michael saw “Steph” and fell for her. But when they began phoning each other, it was Cotton he was talking to, and she wasted no time filling his head with lies.

She told Michael that Steph was having trouble with her sister’s boyfriend. Then, posing as Steph’s mum, she said the boyfriend had attacked her and left her in hospital with bleeding on the brain.

Soon after, Cotton said Steph had been chosen for a pioneering stem cell trial run by a company called Biotech.

Cotton created a number of characters who told Michael on the phone that they were visiting Steph in hospital.

Michael by now believed Steph was his girlfriend and wanted to visit her too.

But Cotton told him she was being moved around different hospitals and couldn’t see him because she had signed a confidentiality agreement for the trial.

Her lies then became even more elaborate. She told Michael a
Biotech doctor had tried to kill Steph by poisoning her with drugs, that the Government were involved and that the press had been banned from reporting the case.

Prosecutor Fraser Gibson told Paisley Sheriff Court: “Michael was led to believe Biotech were trying to kill Steph. He was told they were killing people off.

“Linsey Cotton told him the scandal was so big the Government were trying to cover it up.

“She said he was keeping Steph alive with his support and Biotech were preventing him from seeing her in an attempt to kill her.”

Cotton, as Steph, would manipulate Michael in marathon, late-night conversations by threatening to dump him if he didn’t do what she wanted. The threats caused him “great stress”, the court heard.

By now, Cotton had also written herself into her own fantasy by convincing Michael she was Steph’s closest confidant.

Most of his conversations were now with Cotton, playing herself. But she also continued to use the Steph character to control him.

Steph told Michael he should go on holiday with Cotton and her kids to Newcastle, and he agreed. Cotton also tricked him into giving her money, and told him to buy Steph an expensive pendant for her birthday.

She then told Michael he would have more chance of seeing Steph if they were engaged. He agreed, but Steph then texted him, saying: “Where’s my ring? If you loved me you would have bought me a ring.”

Michael bought a ring for £1870 and sent it to Steph. He got a photo message back of the ring on a woman’s hand.

At the same time, Cotton was putting a picture of the ring on her own Facebook page and telling her friends she was “engaged to Michael McDonough”.

All her family, friends and neighbours believed he was her fiance.

Mark Anderson A police officer outside Room 25 yesterday where Margaret McDonough was fatally injured
A police officer outside Room 25 where Margaret McDonough was fatally injured

This, according to Cotton, was the main motivation for the plot – she wanted to find love.

Financial gain, she claimed, was secondary. But over a year, Michael gave her £4910, a Blackberry and iPhone, as well as painting and wallpapering her home in Addiewell and fixing the laminate flooring and skirting boards.

Cotton, in various guises, contacted Michael 33,000 times over the 12 months. And she also lured Margaret and Nicole into her fictional world.

She claimed that to save Steph from the Biotech killers, help was needed from the European Court of Human Rights. And to bolster the case, Margaret and Nicola would have to provide written testimonies about how badly Michael had been affected by the whole affair.

Both women agreed to help. But Cotton then turned on Nicola, claiming her testimony was “not good enough”.

In a letter from Steph, Cotton told her: “Your big brother has asked you for help and it’s become apparent you could not be bothered to give it a go. Enjoy your life Nicola while I struggle with mine.”

Cotton then claimed the secrecy around Steph’s stem cell treatment had been breached – and that Margaret and Nicola were to blame and faced jail.

The court heard Nicola, who had told her boyfriend about the case, was “in hysterics”, and Margaret was physically sick with worry.

Cotton began sending messages from a fake lawyer which advised Margaret and Nicola to flee abroad to avoid prison – and asked them for thousands of pounds to help with the process.

She tried to get £5500 out of Michael and his family and sent messages to Michael which talked about making Nicola pay.

In texts to Steph, Michael said he could never forgive his mum or his sister for breaching the confidentiality clause.

On May 7, 2013, Cotton went to Margaret’s home in Paisley to discuss the crisis over Steph. Three days later. Margaret and Nicola were found dying at the Greenock Premier Inn.

Even after the tragedy, Cotton continued to manipulate Michael, luring him into her bed with a message from Steph that suggested she “needed a cuddle”. He insisted that his relationship with Cotton remained platonic.

On May 22, 2013, police investigating the deaths of Margaret and Nicola arrived at Cotton’s home. They seized her phones and laptops and her scheme was discovered.

She pled guilty to fraud, falsely threatening Margaret and Nicola with prison and conning Michael out of money and gifts. She was not charged in relation to the deaths of the mother and daughter.

Cotton has been on bail since the case began. But relatives of Margaret and Nicola watched yesterday as she was handcuffed and taken to prison to await sentence next month. She showed no emotion.

Her lawyer, Gerry Bann, told the court his client felt “remorse and shame for
the upset and anguish her deplorable conduct caused the family”.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scott ... ud-6465635

An extreme case, obviously. They make bad law.

[KUAN]

.

I still wonder why these parents don't spend the majority of their time reading up about bowel defects and other basic and curable physical ailments, which are far more likely to afflict their child than psychopathy

You obviously didn't have me as a parent

[AhabsOtherLeg]

That's true. I didn't have any of these other folk as parents either.

I was reigning back on my earlier judgements of them as parents because I can see more clearly now how intense and frightening the whole experience is - and how much extra anxiety (over and above the usual amount we all experience) it generates. Also because I don't know any of them, or their kids neither.

[semper occultus]

Ahab...I must commend guruilla for the success of his summoning ritual...!!

.....I dread to think of what vile depravities and magically-charged fluids were expended in the cause of raising up the behemoth from its slumbers in the sulphorous depths ....

...let alone what will be required to banish him back again when needs arise....

[guruilla]

Guruilla, I think I stumbled across a book that you've got out recently, on Scribd or Google Book previews. I wasn't e-stalking you or anything, I just came across it in the course of my wanderings, after reading a bit of your Yorkshire thread. I wouldn't want to say too much about it in case it wasn't actually by you, but just wanted to say it was very well written, evocative, and particularly fascinating to me because I think I lack whatever higher function it is that lets people get into the metaphysical, occult, esoteric, higher-theory, avant-garde side of things.

It was good reading anyway. I'm going to regret writing this bit if it turns out it was only by A. N. Wilson or something. But it seemed a lot better than that.

Did it have my name on it? I only have about 4 different names attached to books I have written (none of them being A. N. Wilson). If it was recent it could only have been Seen & Not Seen...

I was reigning back on my earlier judgements of them as parents because I can see more clearly now how intense and frightening the whole experience is - and how much extra anxiety (over and above the usual amount we all experience) it generates. Also because I don't know any of them, or their kids neither.

I can only guess about that, and often qualify my comments about parenting with "I don't have kids so I can't really speak. But then again, I did have parents..."

[AhabsOtherLeg]

:yay

Ahab...I must commend guruilla for the success of his summoning ritual...!!

.....I dread to think of what vile depravities and magically-charged fluids were expended in the cause of raising up the behemoth from its slumbers in the sulphorous depths ....

...let alone what will be required to banish him back again when needs arise....

Cheeky bastard. lol.

It is known that with strange aeons, even death may die.

And thus I rise again from time to time.

Ya bawbag.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Did it have my name on it? I only have about 4 different names attached to books I have written (none of them being A. N. Wilson). If it was recent it could only have been [i]Seen & Not Seen[/i

I honestly don't know if it had your name on it. It certainly didn't have your name from here on it - i would've noticed that.

I apologise for choosing A.N. Wilson as a possible alternative author. Blake Morrison probably would've been a better choice if i was going to choose a comparison in terms of literary style and subject matter - I've never actually read any of Wilson's stuff, to be honest. Who has?

I only really know him from documentaries as a long-ago pal of Larkin's.

The book I read bits of was very good anyway. If it was by you, you have my compliments on it.