Betrayal Weekly - A Stranger in the Share House | BONUS | Ashley's Story

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

A Canadian ex-pat living in Australia is stunned to discover that her lovely new boyfriend has very dark and illegal interests.   If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at [e-mail].   To report a case of child sexual exploitation, call The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline at 1-800-THE-LOST  If you or someone you know is worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children reach out to stopitnow.org  In the UK reach out to stopitnow.org.uk  In Australia reach out to stopitnow.org.au See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or web. wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo.

My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat, Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who, who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, Michael Mancini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans. A show about who we are and who we become.

Life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Topics featured in this episode,

may be disturbing to some listeners. Please take care while listening. I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is our second bonus episode of Season 2 of betrayal. Betrayal is a universal feeling. The shock and hurt that deception creates from someone so close crosses all cultures. And we found that the secrets and lies

we've heard in season two happen everywhere. We received emails from Amman Northern Ireland, from a young woman in India, and the woman will introduce to you today lives in Australia. We are far apart, of course, but our interest in protecting those who cannot protect themselves

cuts through those miles and time zones. Melanie is a Canadian expat, living in Australia. Reaching her was a little tricky. Our today is her tomorrow. But we figured it out. It's quite surreal to actually talk to you because you've just been in my years

while I've been running. What happened with me in October, 2017. I just met this guy on an app. He lived in a different town, like eight hours away, so we had just been chatting. And then about two months into our chatting, he made a trip to my city, and we met up for the first time, and we hung out, and we had like a really lovely weekend together. I don't know, treated me well. It was very early stages of dating, but, like, there weren't any red flags at that juncture. So, He went back to his little town.

And then we just kind of started long distance dating. About four months later, Melanie's new guy ended up leaving his job and moving closer to her. She lived in a cosmopolitan town in South Australia called Adelaide. Housing in that part of the country is expensive and hard to find. So even though the relationship was still new, he ended up staying with her. Melanie was living in what's called a sharehouse, down under that refers to, a rental house where people who may not know each other rent a house together. It's a common living arrangement in Australia.

He was looking for a place to live and the sharehouse was really cramped and we were like spending all our time together anyway. We just decided like oh well we'll just move into like another sharehouse together. Things were going well, I guess. Like he treated me really well, almost suspiciously well. Like he just behaved like I was the greatest person he'd ever met in his life. He was always going out of his life. He was always going out of of his way to do nice things for me. He would, like, think of me and buy me little things. He would, like, do my laundry when I was at work.

Like, I don't know. He was just, it was very attentive and very sweet. There were some subtle things that bothered her, but they weren't exactly red flags. He didn't talk too much about his past. He'd come out of, like, a seven-year marriage prior to this and had a four-year-old daughter from his previous marriage. He didn't have custody of his daughter, but he still saw him. her fairly regularly and was having FaceTime calls with her and stuff like that pretty often.

And their physical relationship shifted pretty quickly. After the first few months of the relationship, he just kind of stopped being interested in intimacy. And he had like really bad like performance issues. I definitely was confused by it. It made me feel like there's something wrong with me. like he doesn't find me attractive, but that didn't really line with how he was behaving the rest of the time. So it was just very confusing. Melanie worked during the day and her partner worked in the evening, so he spent much of his day home alone. And then I guess it finally came out at some point

in conversation that he had been watching a lot of porn during the daytime. Melanie started to wonder if this was impacting their intimate relationship. I think I started to get concerned about what his interests might be and what he might be watching. That kind of spurred me to do some digging. So she started by looking at his recently viewed files. There was a video called dog, and I was like, what is this video? I'm going to spare you any more details about that, but it's exactly what you're thinking. Fucked up? Yes. Relationship ending? Hell yes. Illegal? God, I hope so. Melanie was down the rabbit hole now and steeled herself

for whatever other information she was going to discover. I clicked on a folder and it opened. I could just see the thumbnails. It was just all of these images. These are small children. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And Rule 2, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands.

I said, oh, hell no. I vowed I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom.

My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. went and had lunch with them one day and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. He goes, but there's so much luck involved.

And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistency. in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth.

You doctored this particular test twice in so-ins, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Lepinian, Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. this is Love Trap.

Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In horrifying positions, there's no mistaking what that was. I slammed the laptop shut. You're aware that this material exists, but actually seeing it is very different. You had spoke to someone earlier on the podcast

who described it as beyond imagination and like the seventh circle of hell or something like that. Yeah, that's what it is. I was like looking at a little thumbnail straight into hell, basically. I don't think I've entirely been the same person since then. The realization that the man she shared a bed with was getting sexual pleasure from that material was revolting. Melanie was upset and infuriated. At this point, it was like 11 p.m. and he was going to be coming home from work.

And it was just so late at night. I didn't know what to do. I was still trying to process everything that happened. So I had gotten into bed and I just pretended to be asleep. And then he got into bed next to me. And I just laid there in the dark, just like praying that he wouldn't try to touch me or anything. And thankfully, he didn't. But I just remember the feeling of, like, laying there in the dark.

And he was right there. And I felt so sick. She slipped out of bed and went downstairs to call her family back home in Canada. They were scared for her. Who was this guy? Obviously, she didn't know him at all. They urged her to get away from him as soon as possible. He found her sleep downstairs on the sofa in the morning,

and unable to contain herself, she confronted him. He just didn't really have an answer for it. He was just like, I'm sorry. I forgot I had that. I downloaded it a long time ago. I'm not interested in those things. You know, I'll get rid of it or I'll leave if you want me to. And I was like, do you understand what this is?

Like, this is a very serious crime. He didn't seem to really be grasping the gravity of what he had done. Melanie reached out to his family. They didn't seem to grasp it either. His mother was concerned about what? whether or not I was going to report it because she was like, oh, what if we lose access to our granddaughter? And his brother was like, oh, well, would you consider trying couples canceling?

She made it clear he needed to leave. Then she erased every trace of him from the house. It just felt like he had died. One day, there's this person that you think you know and you're in a loving relationship with. And the next day that person is just gone. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that, trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care.

So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.

I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come, look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. and he's like just give it a shot

he goes but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore it's okay to quit if you saw it written down it would not be an inspiration it would not be on a calendar of you know the cat just hang in there

yeah it would not be right it wouldn't be that there's a lot of luck yeah listen to thanks dad on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth.

You doctored this particular test twice in so much, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Some lights the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, Michael Marantini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Melanie grieved the loss of the relationship she thought she had. She also felt compelled to turn him into law enforcement. After all, he did have a daughter. A lawyer friend of a friend accompanied her to the police station. It's just, it's this little police station and there's like a little reporting counter. And there's like constantly people reporting things there. like the person ahead of us in line was like reporting like a stolen bicycle. They took us back into a separate little room.

And then I gave this incredibly detailed statement. It took about an hour and a half. I was still completely in a state of shock. But I think I felt a sense of relief in the sense that like I have done what I can do with this. I've done the right thing. I can go to sleep at night knowing that I have. reported this, and it's out of my hands. She heard Ashley's case on the podcast.

The Riverton Police had gathered evidence and made the arrest quickly. That didn't happen here. This is where it gets really surprising. I imagined, like, they're going to want to swoop in on him and get the hard drives and get all of those things. And that's just not really what happened. they did arrest him, but it took two weeks. Melanie feared that was plenty of time to dispose of the evidence. But he didn't delete the material.

Maybe he deleted some of it and not all. Like, I have absolutely no idea. They, I guess, took him in and questioned him and took all of his devices. I don't think he spent a night in jail. He was just kind of instantly out on bail. He was just like out in the world. And he went straight back on Tinder and just started dating other people. At one point he did send me a bunch of messages on Facebook, just apologizing and being like, I just want to explain myself to you.

And the explanations were just very unsatisfying. You know, it was kind of like, oh, I had a difficult childhood and I'm not really interested in this material. I just found it and, you know, I was just messed up in the head for a while. I don't know. Just nonsense. She forwarded those messages admitting his behavior to law enforcement. Then she wanted to be done with the whole awful experience. But soon after, she saw online that he had a new girlfriend.

Adelaide is the sort of city where, like, everybody knows everybody. But, yeah, I don't know. You're never more than two degrees away from anybody. I didn't know this woman, but we had mutual friends, and she had a job working with children. So I ended up reaching out to this woman. We spoke on the phone. I was like, hey, I don't know how involved you are with this guy, but this is the reason we broke up. And you never know how anyone's going to take that information.

Like, they might just think you're a jealous ex-girlfriend or something like that. but fortunately she believed me instantly and was horrified and I guess had somewhat of a similar experience to me that night because he came home from work and she just said to him, I've spoken to Melanie and he was like, oh, okay, I'll get my stuff and go. Like, he just knew. He ended up and we became incredibly good friends and if there was like anything good to come out of this situation. It was me meeting this woman. Like, we're still very close friends.

She's one of my favorite people. We, no joke about it in a weird way. It's kind of like dating the same pedophile as a weirdly bonding experience. But there was something she learned from her new friend that she couldn't let go. She told me that nobody contacted his ex-wife and told her.

His family didn't. The police did it. And so he was still seeing his child in this period of time. It's not up to me whether he sees this child or not. I have nothing to do with that. But I was just so stunned that nobody gave her this information so that she could make an informed decision. At this point, I was like, is it my job to tell her,

do I get involved in this? It's maddening. Doesn't it feel like something law enforcement or child protective services should, do? But they hadn't. And this is where we want to say, Bravo and thank you to Melanie, because she stepped up. She took it on for no other reason but concerned for someone else's child. I phoned her, and I was like, I know this is weird. I just need five minutes of your time. I told her what had happened. And she was understandably horrified, crying on the phone.

because she was married to this man for seven years and had a child with him. I had no idea that any of this had happened. And that was kind of like the last that I had to do with it because I was like, I now need to step away from this. You may remember from the podcast, in Aaron's situation, it took three years for the state of Texas to bring her husband to justice. It seemed to be similar in Adelaide. At the time that they had arrested him and,

taking all his devices and stuff like that. The police said they had such a backlog of these cases that it could be like a year, year and a half before they even got around to searching his drives because that's how common these crimes were. This wasn't even priority. It was like more than a year later that I finally followed up with them

because nobody contacted me. I was like, you know, what happened? Did he go to court? And so the investigator told me that, yeah, he did go to court. He pled guilty and he was given a seven-month jail sentence, but it was just a suspended sentence. So he didn't actually serve any of the jail time. I guess like the most baffling part of this is that he started seeing a psychologist,

which would, that's what he should be doing. But the psychologist provided a statement as part of the court proceedings. And in her statement, she said that she felt that he did not meet the diagnostic criteria for pedophilia because he was attracted to all forms of deprave and extreme acts of sexual sadism. And the children were not necessarily the focus of that interest. So I don't know what to make about it. I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know how to know. how these things work. I don't even want to try to understand what was going on in his mind.

But it surprised me because just the fact that they're like, well, children aren't his only interest. Therefore, that's somehow less better. Melanie's story resonated for a few reasons. She listened to her gut and didn't dismiss her feelings of something being off with her partner. She refused to accept excuses that made no sense. And she went to great lengths to protect women and children she doesn't even know. People like Melanie don't get parades, but I'd give her a cape. If you would like to reach out to the betrayal team, email us at BetrayalPod at gmail.com.

That's Betrayal P-O-D at gmail.com. To report a case of child sexual exploitation, call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Cyber Tip Line. At 1-800, The Lost. If you or someone you know is worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children, reach out to stopitnow.org. In the United Kingdom, go to stopitnow.org. DotuK. In Australia, stopitnow.org.

Dot A.U. These organizations can help. We're grateful for your support. And one way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five-star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts,

a division of Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with IHart Podcasts. The show was executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fasin, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Carrie Hartman, also produced by Ben Federman, associate producer Kristen Malkyrie. Our I-Heart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Special thanks to Melanie for sharing her story. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Dalvecchio, betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines, music library provided by Mide Music,

and for more podcasts from IHeart, visit the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Everyone, I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit.

If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins.

But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Ellen's, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, Michael Mancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young.

This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions.

You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. guaranteed human.