Kill me if you can

[chloe55]

Did anyone watch this program on channel 4 last night? I started to watch it and then fell asleep - I got as far as Mark becoming engrossed in the chat room and then that lady joining claiming she worked for a secret agency - what happened, did she advise him to kill John?

My DH is worried now because he doesn't agree with chat rooms (thinks they are dangerous) and now he thinks I am gonna fall in some sort of trouble using this one!

[Tiasmummy]

You still here? I will tell you what happened....you wont believe it!!!

[handlemecarefully]

Yes 'she' advised him to kill John, and very wierdly she (and the other alter egos like the gay stalker and the girlfriend)all turned out to be John who was a fantasist with a death wish

[chloe55]

still here

[handlemecarefully]

Well see below then

[chloe55]

Jesus - weirdo, it was a true story too wasn't it

[handlemecarefully]

Yup.

I think poor lad was just a tad 'confused'.

[chloe55]

sorry handlemecarefully - got distracted just after tia post and pressed send without reading yours! Your explanation is much appreciated

[handlemecarefully]

My pleasure.

[spacedonkey]

Erm, well the mystery lady (Jane Dobinson iirc) claimed to be working for the British Secret Services and gave Mark a series of tasks to perform, promising sexual favours and huge sums of money in return. She convinced Mark that his friend, John, was in fact one of the most important people in Britain as only he (along with the queen) had access to a safe kept at the bottom of the atlantic ocean (!). I can't remember what was supposed to be in the safe.

This continued until Jane Dobinson told Mark that his final assignment would be to stab John. She promised that once this was done, she would be the first to arrive on the scene (disguised as a policewoman) so that he would not be arrested for the crime, and following this she would sleep with him (and pay him millions of pounds).

Mark carried out the stabbing, almost killing John. The police soon worked out that Mark had to be the one who stabbed John (from CCTV footage), but couldn't work out the motive. Mark held out for a month waiting for Jane Dobinson to vindicate him, but eventually told the whole story to the police.

The police examined Mark's computer and found the chatroom scripts were stored on the hard drive. On examining the conversations that had taken place between Mark and Jane Dobinson, Rachel (the murdered girlfriend) and Patrick (the gay stalker), they discovered that there was a spelling mistake common to all three - "maybe" was misspelt "mybye". This enabled them to identify John as the person behind all of these personas. John had created the whole thing, Mark had been extraordinarily gullible, and (according to the barristers) what followed was known in legal terms as a "folie a deux" - the combination of the two boys' characters resulted in a unique madness.

Mark was charged with attempted murder, and John was (uniquely) charged with incitement of his own murder. Both avoided custodial sentences, but are not allowed to use the internet unsupervised, and are never allowed to meet again.

Surely it's only a matter of time before the movie comes out!

[spacedonkey]

I'm too slow!

[chloe55]

It amazes me what goes through people's heads. Why would you be sucked into something so weird and why would you want someone to kill you?! What an imagination and I agree, will def be a movie soon

[spacedonkey]

I think he's probably learned his lesson!

[Jbck]

I began to wonder if it was all a hoax, it's the type of thing the Sun or NOTW would have had splashed all over the front pages & I can't remember seeing anything in the papers.
Any Mumsnetters from altrincham remember the case in the local papers?
I think John should possibly have been detained for his own protection.

[Easy]

If John were my son I'd be seeking some psychiatric help I think. Mind you, I don't think my son would spend 12 - 14 hours a day on the internet in the first place, but mine is only 6, perhaps I'll understand more when he's 14