Announcement re deletion of Wig and Robe/Judge Flounce threads

[carrie (mumsnet)]

Dear mumsnetters,

We are now able to shed a bit more light as to what actually occurred re the Wig and Robe/Judge Flounce episode. We are pretty sure (having received a confession of as much) that, as some of you suspected, W&R/JF was a non-lawyer masquerading as a QC. Given this knowledge we have deleted the relevant postings and banned the user from the site.

If nothing else the whole business is a salutary reminder that you can never be completely sure that folks are who they say they are and neither should you necessarily completely trust the advice, especially "professional" advice, posted on mumsnet.

As a result of some concerns raised by you we are looking into making parts of the site, the swaps and weight loss clubs for example, something that operates via mumsnet HQ so that people's addresses are not being circulated. If anyone has any other suggestions then please [email protected] or post them here and we promise to consider them.

We?d also remind folks that when organising meet ups you should take the same precautions you would when meeting anyone from the net - make sure you meet in a public place and that others know where you are going.

Having said all that, it would be a shame if this relatively rare occurrence of someone pretending to be someone they are not changed the warm, supportive, welcoming and caring atmosphere on mumsnet - and we're confident that you won't let it!

Thanks for all the supportive and helpful emails we've received from so many of you.

Carrie, Rachel and Justine

Think alot of anger was felt towards her, people felt very strongly about being taken for fools and perhaps that resulted in comments that were said in the heat of the moment, I personnally feel glad that fellow mnetters went to such lengths and dared to 'out' this person for being a fraud, I think it shows that they care about the site and want to keep it a secure, safe place for the rest of us who perhaps stayed out of it all, now it's all over and JF/W&R has been proved a fraud, I'd just like to say that although I had no idea whether her/his legal advice was correct or not, I just personally did NOT like her/him, thought she/he was very arogant and patronising to other posters and extremely rude and am furious at the time she/he told me to shut up as my advice was nonsense! Cheeky b*d/b**h, made me feel very foolish and upset at the time and I stopped posting for a while cos of it, now I can chuckle to myself, they were the one who were talking nonsense! At least I don't have to pretend I'm something I'm not!

I cna helpo them with speeding fines ( but shsh its secret

I always assumed malt was what lawyers drank I suppose that's like sayin us accountant are all skin flints! lol.

I chatted a lot with W&R and got on really well with her, and feel really stupid and embarrassed at both being taken in by her and in defending her. It was a shame that some things were said in the heat of the moment that were probably best left unsaid, but I do think that those who knew she was a fake were right to raise the queries they raised - it's unfortunate that MN didn't act on their queries earlier, but that's the way it goes.

But what I want to know is:

Was she sent an email?
What was in it?
Who sent it ??

Disagree with the bus theory. You know you will probably die if you step out in front of a bus. You dont have to have any legal knowledge to know that. Even my 9 year old son know that. However, as an intelligent 30 year old there is no way i could tell if her advice was genuine or not. I am not vulnerable so know to check advice over the internet.

her attitude whena sking me about jp ing was veryy odd and I htink she knoew i had rumbled her

any how really must drag myslef away... god MN!!!! why do u have to be sooo addictive ! lol.

no one
nothing

imo

Thats what I was thinking soupy........did she/he just think "shit, i'm getting in abit deep now better back some more bullshit up to get out of it"

I have to say it......I love this!!!

I think you're right, Coddy - I think he/she knew that they had been rumbled and set the whole thing up as a way out.

Me too

Have to go and put my Tescos shopping away as the tesco's man has just been. Wonder if he was a QC in disguise...

And speaking as someone who had reason to point out that she was wrong a couple of times, I think people forget how abusive and aggressive 'she' was if challenged in any way - 'she' certainly didn't hold back from calling people 'stupid', 'fools' and a lot worse. Actually the more I think about it, the more I'm amazed she had such a long run on Mumsnet.

oops and sw, you would need to go through the expose thread and then see what you think about W&R's 'DH' (i really hope it has not been deleted in its entirety, I don't actually think any of it should have been deleted -I think we need to be able to read it and draw our own conclusions).
I think the scam we fell for was potentially harmful to some of the individuals, and I don't think those exposing it went too far in any way. (whispers - I don't even think soapbox was out of order).

loooking back it was quite obvious it was a bloke when he/she attacked PPH and then blamed it on PMS. That was most unpleasant

ANd the lie about the lost child was unforgivable given that there are MNers to whom that has sadly happened

MAKE some more B*ll shit up even

Couple of answers:
Yes JF/W&R was banned prior to the photos incidents.

Suzywong, I'm afraid we have no way of knowing what parts of the posts were true and what were fiction.

Yeah, thanks PPH aloha and everyone else who called on this one. I must admit I found the whisky sipping avuncular persona quite engaging, to begin with, the florid touches like 'women weeping in my chambers' made me a bit suspicious but I wouldn't have had a clue about the legal side and the bereavement bit made me want to give benefit of doubt (cos no-one would make THAT up ergo rest may well be true ... It is good this is sorted. I have been very down on occasion and it does make you vulnerable so it is good that this kind of erroneous, dogmatic advice is stopped. Thank you to those concerned.

Anyway, I'm glad Mumsnet has people on it who went to the trouble of emailing Carrie and Rachel etc and dared to say the unsayable. I think everyone should have more confidence in a site where it's possible to do this.

i just hate the thought of this person laughing behind our backs. makes me mad

It's bizarre, I remember Aloha that one thread where there was a thing about PR and I knew she was blatantly wrong.
I knew she purported to be a lawyer but I never truly ever believed her, but never imagined that is was dangerous , I could kick myself for my ignorance in staying quiet.
I thought it was funny and felt sorry for her deluding herself like that and thought that everyone knew and was humouring her like we do with Lav sometimes you know?.
Didn't see the cbt/psych one or deffo would have sounded alarm bells then.
this whole thing has been weird...

How vague am I!

thsi is going too fast for me to keep up - but aloha I agree with you, in hindsight it just seems so obvious. I suppose I just thought 'hmm, you're a bit pushy, don't think I like you very much' and then just avoided 'her'. But it didn't occur to me not to take at face value. I guess it is human nature to be trusting - that's not a bad thing, we couldn't survive without it!

Although I have kept out of this I must say I was wary when she was initially posting as "The Money Shot". I agree with you Aloha too and feel for the mners like pph and coddy who tried to stand up to her at the time.

Well done carrie et al for sorting it out and letting us know what has happened.

btw, munzie, dh is a lawyer and drinks malt .

and dp is a skinflint accountant

Thanks for answereing that Carrie.

I know if she/he could still have been lurking on photo thread if they were banned by the way, i just wanted to know.
So either it was her/him still lurking or there is another mad person on here, either way i don't like it.