Spy conman 'put me through hell'
This is an extraordinary story. It's been bubbling about in the media for months, but only now are we able to read the full story.
We are all gullible, up to a point. We have to take people on trust, and trust our instincts. And most of us feel we know the rules, up to a point. I've fallen for guys who have turned out to be all charm and no substance. But this has emerged after a few weeks of meeting up for meals, drinks etc after work. Maybe even a few shags. But no one has ever taken over my life and my life savings.
This guy deserves the life sentence he has been handed out, but, I have to say, I don't feel a great deal of sympathy towards the victims. It's like some people are wanting to be conned. Sometimes they're motivated by greed, sometimes it's a sense of danger, I don't know. I suppose they're a bit like people who become drug addicts. The kicks, the living outside the norms of society, some can't resist. I suppose I am lucky that I don't go for thrills, on the whole. I like having a solid structure and foundation to my life, and use that as a springboard for my thrills, comfortable that I'm in control.
Or am I being complacent? People think they can trust someone, and something catastrophic happens, and that person they thought was a good all-round decent person turns out to have a monster lurking. They would argue they were not gullible, they would argue they believed their instincts told them to trust that person.
I'm sitting here and I'm thinking of the people I trust. If I was being coldly, logical, objective I would question the basis of that trust. Perhaps I would say that's it a calculated risk. But not that calculated, and anyway many things in life are a risk, or random - what job to accept, where to live. And most of all our life (or part-life) partners. These things could go catastrophically wrong, randomly. But I still feel there is a difference between finding out that you can't stand your employer or that your husband is serially unfaithful, and having your entire life, your mind, your will and enormous sums of money taken away from you by someone who's entire way of living is totally outside the norms of accepted behaviour.
And, I have to say, when people wake up to the faults of their employer, or spouse, or neighbourhood, it's usually about something they've known all along but have justified to themselves, explained away, tried to minimise.
(The victims) included...a recently married PA, who left her husband for the swindler and ended up sleeping on park benches, living on a slice of Mars Bar a day and foraging for fresh water in public lavatories.
I mean, come on, he made her do that?
Sorry, I need some convincing here.
