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In 2006 Carly Ryan thought she had met her dream boyfriend online. His name was Brandon Kane, an 18yr old musician from Melbourne. Brandon was a fictitious, internet construct, the cyberspace alter ego of Garry Francis Newman, a 50yr old predator and pedophile. Carly fell in love with  "Brandon" during an 18 month relationship consisting of online contact and phone calls.

Garry Newman spent months masquerading as Brandon Kane to win Carly’s love. When he tried to seduce her in person pretending to be Brandon’s father “Shane”, she rejected him. An angry Garry Newman returned to Melbourne vowing to “fix Carly up.” He used his alter ego to lure Carly to a final, fatal meeting.

In February 2007,  Newman convinced Carly to meet him and he took Carly to a secluded beach at Port Elliott, South Australia. There, he bashed her, pushed her face into the sand, suffocating her, and threw her into the water to drown. She was 15yrs old.

Online predators will continue to prey on kids unless we wake up to the risks of various online mediums, chat rooms and social networking sites. What happened to Carly can happen to anyone. People that groom the young online are manipulating and controlling, and they know exactly how to target a child. They become the most important person in that child’s life, then use that trust to do whatever they like to their victim. The internet is part of our daily lives, it is essential that children, teens and young adults learn how to navigate the worldwide web safely.

As we HONOR the memory of Carly, we are doing our best to recap this entire case study with permission of her mother Sonya Ryan. 

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