This week Inside Story looks at the dark side of finding love and friendship online.
EPISODE 2 – “Perfect Stranger”
Jayke Williams was blonde, muscly and hot…just Ellisha Johnston’s type. So, naturally, she accepted his request to be a Facebook friend. That one unsuspecting click of the mouse changed Ellisha’s life forever. Soon she was in the throes of an intense online romance with the mysterious Jayke Williams.
But Jayke Williams didn’t exist. Ellisha had been duped by an evil, middle-aged predator who cruelly manipulated the Queensland schoolgirl for the next four years.
At one stage, Ellisha even attempted suicide to escape him. She wasn’t his only victim. Using the stolen identity of an athletic, good looking Melbourne man, he stalked dozens of other young women, convincing them to send him nude photos he later used to publicly shame them.
But, when one of those victims finally unmasked this loathsome predator, nothing could prepare Ellisha for his true identity.
7:30pm Thursday on Nine.
