School, despite his excellent grades, was equally desolate. A 15-year-old boy has been killed and his mother injured after they were both stabbed at a house in Manchester. Also in evidence were communications to both boys from someone who claimed to be a 44-year-old top administrator in the British secret service. Four months after the stabbing, the charges were amended. For three months there would be no major reduction in bafflement. Despite the devastating effect the ordeal had on Boy A, Mr Ross said he did Hatton, Mark's barrister, concedes that when he first met his client "he didn't find it easy to explain to me why he had fallen for it and been so stupid." Asked if anyone had ever been able to exert control over his private thoughts, the boy said yes. Emergency services were called to the . put her head under water. "Mark did it once, stood up, holding me, did it again," the victim told police. "I bottled it in," he told the Manchester psychiatrist Sue Bailey. With each passing day, the fantasy Janet was creating became even wilder, even more unbelievable, yet Mark did not question it. This time the order came from Tony Blair himself, via Janet. That girl was in fact the younger boy.". Mark was told by her that he must commit various tasks and that John was dying from a brain tumour. Back Mark went to a juvenile-detention center. Boy A, who is now 17, was served with a two-year supervision order and is allowed no contact with Boy B. (As things turned out, John would never utter the abort code to Mark: "Well I knew that he had to do it because I sort of told him," he later told police.). "It was like satisfying a craving, you had to be on there, you had to be doing it." John screamed. Apparently a girl named Rachel had signed in to the chat room initially. From four in the afternoon to seven in the morning, he typed his inventions into his laptop. He was in many regards, an ordinary teenage lad. But it wasn't just the virtual Mark whom John loved. Mark once again obliged. From his hospital bed, John said he had been stabbed by Mark but "he didn't know why". No madman in a hooded jacket, the authorities quickly realized, would ever be found. John and Mark then physically met, as did their parents, but in the chatroom John introduced increasingly far-fetched characters, including another boy who "stalked" John and supposedly killed his girlfriend. Mark asked the "spy": U want me 2 take him 2 trafford centre [shopping centre, near Manchester] and kill him in the middle of the trafford centre?? A court order, citing the age of the culprits, would not permit any media outletincluding Vanity Fairto identify the boys and required every publication to use the pseudonyms "John" and "Mark." ", Boy A thought he was carrying out the orders of a British spy, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites, 28 May 04 [1] The incident was the result of a gangland feud between Rusholme Crips and Moss Side 's AO, or, 'Active Only'. Hed been asked to do so by a British spy mistress called Janet Dobinson, who hed been communicating with via an Internet chat room. Sally Hogg, the Criminal Intelligence Analyst, who examined the 56,000 lines of emails and messages, said Boy B developed a dangerous influence over his older friend. other middle-class family, and the word that keeps coming back to us is what a Footage captured of the alley entrance showed that no one else had entered it except John and Mark. "Skilled writers of fiction would struggle to conjure up a plot such as that Only a part of this amazing story was ever revealed to the British public. But Boy B did not die and spent a week in. said. That is what lies at the heart of this story. It all seemed quite unbelievable but for the impressionable and nave Mark, hed believed every twist and turn of the fantasy that had been created for him online. "Only he can walk through the door. Sometimes John would approach their bedroom and listen quietly, his ear pressed to the door. Undated family handout photo issued by Greater Manchester Police of 15-year-old Jakub Szymanski, known as Kuba to his family . There were conditions made: no unsupervised Internet sessions for either boy, no further contact between them. Ashley Spence, age 21, was transported to Saint Francis where she was pronounced dead. not believe Boy B intended to harm him. "There is nothing you would see in these boys that is different from any Indeed, for all his love for Mark, who was languishing in confinement for eight months while John recuperated at home, the younger boy remained rigidly unforthcoming about his own participation in the scheme. One time he tried to depart from this routine, Bailey reported, but "the resulting anxiety was such that he had to go back and dress all over again." Shortly after her appearance, John suddenly emerged in the chat room as himself (saying that he was Rachel's brother), and these two were followed by still other fantastical alter egos equipped with wild backgrounds but dull, repetitive names: Lyndsey East, Rachel East, Kevin McGregory, Dave McNeil, Janet Dobinson. Though John's life was in the balance for a time, he did not die and was released from hospital after a week. KROQ Weenie Roast is a multi-artist music concert, presented annually in May by the Los Angeles, California, modern rock radio station KROQ-FM.Since its beginning in 1993, it has been traditionally held on a Saturday in May or June, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been no editions of the festival since 2019. The prosecutor thinks otherwise. Thus, Rachel was only the beginning of what evolved into an intricate Internet folie six. Writing only in capital letters, Janet convinced Mark she was a spy and he was the reason she had joined the chat room, to recruit him into MI5. John was careful to find an excuse for a certain character to disappear so a new one could enter the online chat. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. United States, about 18 miles (29 km) north of St. Louis, Missouri.The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census.It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East . At no point could I find he made a mistake." He did reasonably well at school, although he wasn't the most academic person. On one occasion, she asked him to get John out of school as his life was in danger. "Paki" and "gay" were some of the names hurled at himthe first because "I think my dad must have been Asian," the second "because most of my friends were girls." He found he was never tired. No man in his life had ever meant much to him: he had no recollection of his biological fatherwho had, John's mother later told her son's therapist, not only abducted their son when he was a baby but also abused her physically and sexually. this sort of thing. A 17-year-old boy died after a horror street fight involving more than 100 people including some armed with 'machetes' on Saturday night (Saturday, September 4) in East London. This Dobinson woman claimed to have urgent business with a very lofty crowd. Mark was so convinced of Kevins threats that he agreed to the terms. Mark, who is also from a middle-class family in Greater Manchester, was given a two-year supervision order for attempted murder. Sally Hogg went directly to the prosecutor with the news. "Isolated" was the word John used to describe his existence at this time. Mark was still accused of attempted murder, to which he ultimately pleaded guilty. U werent there for her. The mother also insisted on meeting Mark's parents, who lived in the middle-class suburb of Stockport, about four miles away. The 17-year-old boy, known only as Boy A . If converted into a paper pile, she adds, "it would stretch, I think, 46,000 feet high. The Montreal Mafia Murders: Blood, Gore, Cannolis, and Hockey Bags, Palace Insiders Say Prince William Is Already Furious About Prince Harrys Memoir Leaks, Prince Harry alleges Prince William attacked him over Meghan Markle in a new excerpt from, Prince Harry on Williams Hairline and Their Wicked Stepmother. [2] [3] [4] A 16-year-old boy is 'lucky to be alive' after he was set upon by a group of strangers and stabbed inside Next at a popular Manchester shopping centre. Next to it is the headline BOY STABBED. Police have not linked any of the incidents. But all he manages to attract is the curiosity of the local police. "This was a seemingly unprovoked attack," he told the media, which were directed to inform the public of the knife-wielding monster, "and we have no idea why this happened." The police officer who led the investigation said the boys' lives and the lives of their families had been devastated. Mark then grew close with her stepbrother John, even meeting up in person and hanging out. that's wot ur askin me?" The lawyer is distinctly impressed by his client. . But for all his facility at invention John wanted for himself no identity at all. It is this demand that catches my eye when I open the 15 pounds of chat-room text that I had received. Murderers? As for himself, John was a virtual Scheherazade, a gifted fabricator. If he completed his mission hed become a member of the British Secret Service, receive 80 million, meet Tony Blair (the then PM), the Queen and receive sexual favours from Janet, a 44-year-old married woman who lived a double life for Queen and country. His friend John marveled at such a trusting, suggestible nature. The world he had known was John, written, produced, and directed by John. In addition, police managed to recover dialogue from "unallocated clusters," data in storage space the computer is no longer using for active files. Both sets of parents decided there would be no more sleepovers. Perhaps it was "warped" to spend so much time in chat rooms, he reflected, sleepless and typing ceaselessly. "And jus leave him 2 die . Judge David Maddison, the recorder of Manchester, said: "Skilled writers of fiction would struggle to conjure up a plot such as that which arises here. Plays Daisy Meredith in "Daisy Pulls It Off" play by Denise Deegan (Lyric Theatre, London, England, UK). There was to be no further communication with the peculiar Janet Dobinson, allegedly of the British secret service. I havent really thought about it.". He might be talking about a particularly apt pupil. Stunned and uncomprehending, she reported her observations to John's mother, who agreed that her son's behavior had been very strange recently. "I was surprised Mark believed it all," John would later admit. The following day the two boys met and went to the Trafford Centre where they bought a kitchen knife. A 15-year-old boy has died after police say he was stabbed at the Brimbank Shopping Centre in the Melbourne suburb of Deer Park. Young Johnas the hopelessly credulous Mark was informed by the spy Dobinsonhad a slow-growing but terminal brain tumor. The teenager was taken to hospital as well following his injuries but died around an hour after arriving. Although evidently preoccupied with problems at the most exalted levels of government ("Hiya Babes. Thus, the stories that emerged about John were a feeble compilation of bare-bones facts and judgments spoon-fed by the authorities. When he stopped going downstairs for meals, his slight frame shrank even further. To lose that world meant losing his friend. We finally saw that the last person to use the laptop at John's house [before the stabbing] was Janet Dobinson.". For one thing, Agent Dobinson was promising extraordinary rewards for his service to the Crown: 80 million, she estimated, sexual favors, a career in the intelligence service cemented by a contract. Sentencing, Judge David Maddison said the case was "extraordinary". "He said if he had not created Rachel, then Mark would not have wanted to get close to him," Dr. Kirsty Smedley, a Manchester psychologist, wrote after interviewing John subsequent to his arrest. The 14-year-old boy, dubbed Boy B in court, created a series of fictional characters in chatrooms, one of which ordered Boy A to murder him. Detective Chief Inspector Julian Ross, of Greater Manchester police, said: "The initial contact was made when the older boy went into an internet chatroom and talked to a person purporting to be a 16-year-old girl. Jakub Szymanski was taken to hospital with stab wounds but later died after officers were called to an address in the Miles Platting area of Manchester on Thursday. Boy A: and just leave him 2 die in the trafford centre? However much she screamed for u.". an incredulous Mark wrote the British agent Janet Dobinson on June 28, 2003. Ad Choices. As Mark would discover on the chat-room site, Rachel, along with her "brother" John, were in a state of ceaseless peril, threatened with abduction and rape by a self-proclaimed homosexual stalker named KevinJohn's fourth character. Tales were told of instant transformations. Turnb Dobinson had answers for everything. Invention was so easy, "the equivalent of taking heroin," John thought. Why had John done it? Threads of plots, no matter how complicated or absurd, were never dropped. Mark was no help at all. Mark, who "liked me loads," as John realized, would certainly cease correspondence if the truth emerged about his virtual romantic interests. John yearns for strangers to recognize him for the celebrity he almost was. Then Mark should call an ambulancebut "not st8 away." Also, John is certain that people are always talking about him once they believe him to be out of earshot. Certainly John possessed the determination and industry necessary for success. Over a nine-month period before the attempted murder, John began presenting himself as a 16-year-old girl in search of a cyber relationship, then "introduced" himself as the girl's step-brother. | Whilst the chat included usual teenage topics such as sports, movies and clothing, sex and masturbation was often the focus. At the end of May, the teenagers, their lawyers, and the press gathered in Judge Maddison's courtroom, where neither boy so much as glanced at the other. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Eight months later he began spending a lot more time on the Internet, the teenager said. Janet had used it and so had John. A new feeling took hold: "Wanting my life to end" was how John described it. Stand there a [minute] while i stab u?". The author knocks on the doors bearing the darkest symbols, behind which lie guns, ammo, antisemitism, antiabortion dogmaand a belief in the coming civil war. He was, he told his probation officer, "trapped" in the virtual world, with no way out. A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a boy was stabbed at a house in Manchester. "It was incitement to commit murder - his own murder," said Detective Chief Inspector Julian Ross of Greater Manchester Police. Detectives made appeals for help through the local media for the apparently unprovoked attack in Altrincham town centre. AETNUK All Rights Reserved. But this time John also was chargedwith inciting murder. Minutes passed, perhaps as many as 20. Manchester stabbing: Boy, 15, killed and mother injured as police hunt suspect Anyone who believes they have seen the suspect has been instructed by police not to approach him and to call 999. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. "My life was on the Internet. It's staggering to be dealing with a case that arises out of a 14-year-old boy's invention of false personalities, false relationships and events arranged for his own killing at the hands of a 16-year-old boy who he had met via an internet chatroom.". "Staggering," said the judge who would hear his case. A closed-circuit camera at the base of the alley had recorded all the foot traffic. Credit: MEN Media. For the past six months, Mark had communicated with a variety of people on the chat room, a site dedicated to Manchester teenagers. But to the authorities who later analyzed and re-analyzed what was written, none of this was ordinary. //-->