Carly Ryan: A loving girl who fell prey to an online predator
IT’S the murder that captured the nation’s attention — for all the wrong reasons. Here, Court Reporter Sean Fewster sifts rumour, gossip and transcript for the truth about Carly Ryan and the man who killed her.
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FOR many people, the name “Carly Ryan’’ conjures up images of brooding teens, sexually-charged internet use and vicious murder. In truth, the Adelaide Hills teenager was far more than “that girl from the vampire website’’.
Fun-loving and unfailingly friendly, Miss Ryan was anything but a morose, depressed emo.
Although she liked the subculture’s clothing and music, she was more likely to wrap you up in a hug than turn away from you with a sneer.
Yet it was that accepting nature — and a near-death experience — that left Miss Ryan vulnerable to the advances of a foul, deviant predator.
Adding to the tragedy, the many rumours surrounding her death caused her family further anguish.
Some people assassinated her character, or assigned sinister motives to what was no more than a 15-year-old girl’s search for true love.
Born on January 31, 1992, Miss Ryan lived with her mother, Sonya, in Stirling.
`”We had a close relationship, very open, and we got along very well — almost a friend-like relationship,’’ Ms Ryan said during the trial.
Miss Ryan’s innocence was shaken, however, when she nearly died in hospital.
She had suffered alcohol poisoning after being given drinks by older teens.
“Once she became well, she was determined to never drink alcohol again,’’ Ms Ryan said.
That decision isolated her from her experimental peers and the internet became her outlet — particularly social networking website MySpace.
But her online habits were changed by her time in intensive care, reflecting her darker outlook.
She had email accounts with names like “jesusisrapingmyshoe’’ and “trashwhore13’’, and her MySpace name was “synthetic slut’’. Her website profile changed dramatically.
“There were images I was taken aback by ... some dark art, really risque, dark and sexual images,’’ Ms Ryan said.
“With the photo of Carly, I couldn’t see her face ... she had taken a three-part image of her chest, waist and legs wearing fishnet stockings and a bra.’’
Contrary to early reports, Miss Ryan was never a member of the controversial vampirefreaks.com site.
Her connection to it came through friends who, in turn, introduced her to the love of her life.
Brandon Kane was a 20-year-old, Texas-born, Victorian-raised emo, who played guitar and thought Carly was “hot’’.
For a 14-year-old going through the typical adolescent search for identity, he was a dream come true.
“She said Brandon was really cute and that she really liked him,’’ Ms Ryan said.
“She was like a giddy teenager in love — really happy, really light and really excited.’’
Miss Ryan also began to communicate with Brandon’s “adopted father’’, Shane.
Their chats made her friends uncomfortable.
Shane would speak to them on the phone, asking if they were bisexual and liked kissing girls.
With her 15th birthday party planned for January 26, 2007, Miss Ryan invited Brandon to attend.
He declined, saying he would be overseas, and offered to have Shane go in his place.
Ms Ryan was hesitant.
“I said to Carly that I didn’t know this person and I wasn’t sure it was a good idea,’’ she said.
“Carly tried to assure me he was Brandon’s dad, a security guard and that we would get along well.’’
The man who arrived at the Ryan house in January 2007 was not Shane, the SAS commando who had worked as a bodyguard for goth rocker Marilyn Manson.
He was, in truth, a 50-year-old divorced father of three who lived with his mother.
“Shane’’ was but one of 200 fake identities operated by the father, who used web design jobs to cover up his plethora of constructs.
Others ranged from the tame “kuruptkoala’’ to the more risque.
His computer hard drives were filled with vampire trivia and child pornography.
“I may not be a kid anymore, but I tend to act much younger than I am,’’ he wrote on his website.
“I do go for women somewhat younger than me usually ... someone sexually adventurous.’’
The father had pursued a 14-year-old girl in the United States in 2002 and 2003.
In online exchanges, he referred to her as his “princess’’ and his “wife’’.
He had also communicated with a 14-year-old girl in Singapore, while using the alias “Nash’’.
She did not attend their planned meeting, leaving him in a rage.
The father told his online friends the girl “would pay’’ for standing him up, saying he would use “a young guy’’ to lure her out of her home.
He told a friend she would end up “looking like that packaged meat you get at Safeway’’.
In January 2007 the father travelled to Adelaide to consummate his sexual obsession with Miss Ryan.
Confident of his success, he told his co-workers he was starting a new life in Adelaide. He was convinced the girl would accept him in place of the Brandon fantasy.
He received a less-than-warm reception on his arrival.
“He was stocky with thinning hair, had crooked teeth and walked hunched over like an ape,’’ Ms Ryan said.
“Carly told me she thought he was gross.’’
Undaunted, the father spent time with Miss Ryan and her friends, goading them to kiss while he watched.
“I pulled away, she got angry and walked off,’’ one girl said.
“Shane said, ‘Maybe she wouldn’t have walked off if you had given her what she wanted’.’’
The father bought Miss Ryan corsets and dress-up costumes, peering over the change room doors while she tried them on.
At a party he became jealous, saying “Brandon is on the phone’’ if she spoke to other boys.
He slipped into her bed that night, whispering “I love you’’ and “I’ll never let anything happen to you’’.
Discovering this was too much for Ms Ryan and she demanded the father stay away.
He retaliated by email, calling her a “child-abusing bitch’’.
Upon his return to Victoria, he vented his frustrations to his eldest son.
“He said he wanted to ‘fix up’ Carly,’’ the eldest son said.
When his eldest son refused to help, the father turned to his youngest son — a boy he barely knew.
Then 17, the son had spent most of his life in foster care.
He had lived with his father for less than a month when he was invited to go to Adelaide.
Using the Brandon construct once again, the father convinced Miss Ryan to go to Victor Harbor, with him and his son, on February 19, 2007.
The next morning, her bashed, sand-choked and drowned body was found by passers-by at Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot.
Father and son returned to Victoria and met up with the eldest son.
“My father showed me his knuckles and asked, ‘Do these look bruised to you?’,’’ the eldest son said.
“He told me that he had punched Carly Ryan in the face, that he had killed her, that he had ‘done the job’.
“He said he had punched her in the face, pushed her face into the sand and, after that, he had thrown her into the water.’’
Quickly, police connected “Shane’’ to Miss Ryan’s death, and Victorian police swooped on the father.
They found him at his computer, logged in as Brandon and chatting with a 14-year-old girl in Western Australia.
Each man was charged with murder and extradited to South Australia.
The father immediately claimed his youngest son was the one who used the Brandon identity.
He would try to blame the boy throughout their three years in custody.
The duo was ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court in October 2009.
Before it began, Justice Trish Kelly ruled evidence of the father’s pursuit of other teenagers was inadmissable and prejudicial.
A common legal ruling, the act kept the jury focused on evidence relating directly to Miss Ryan.
The father changed his tune during the trial, insisting neither he nor his son were killers.
He also claimed to be asexual, to have felt “like a step-dad’’ toward Miss Ryan, and to have collated false identities to write an expose on the internet.
In fiery exchanges with his son’s lawyer, Bill Boucaut, the father protested his innocence.
“You’re trying to make me seem sick and perverted,’’ the father said.
“You’re trying to make out like I’m some sort of predator ... a sicko predator.’’
Mr Boucaut and prosecutor Tim Preston repeatedly attacked the father’s contradictory evidence, branding it “elaborate lies’’.
The father was even more evasive when the jury was not present in court.
On two occasions his counsel, Nick Vadasz, sought to withdraw from the case due to “irreconcilable differences’’ with his client.
The court heard the father had written to other lawyers, seeking their opinions about Mr Vadasz.
The son, by contrast, did not take the stand.
Mr Boucaut told the jury there was nothing to connect his client to the murder, saying the evidence was “one-way traffic’’ pointing to the father.
As the end of the trial drew near, the father’s condition deteriorated markedly.
He sat shaking in the dock and his facial hair became unruly — under suicide watch, he had been denied the use of razors.
The jury deliberated for 10 1/2 hours over two days.
They paused only to ask for Justice Kelly’s assistance.
The jurors wanted to know if they could find one man guilty of murder and the other guilty of manslaughter.
Upon hearing that question, the son burst into tears.
“The short and simple answer to that is ‘yes’,’’ Justice Kelly said.
She further explained to the jury they would need to be satisfied of many factors were they to find the boy guilty of either crime.
For him to be guilty of murder, she said, they had to be sure he either participated in the plot to kill Miss Ryan or encouraged the crime.
To be guilty of manslaughter, the son must have participated in a plot to do harm to Miss Ryan — resulting in her death — or encouraged his father to harm Miss Ryan in a fatal way.
The jury could not find the son guilty of the lesser offence of assisting an offender, because prosecutors had never charged him with that crime.
When, at 4.30pm on Thursday, the jury found him guilty of murder, the father showed no reaction.
The son was visibly relieved at news of his acquittal.
Arrangements were made for him to return to Victoria that night.
“He never did anything, he’s a good boy,’’ his grandmother said yesterday.
“His father pulled him into it, he shouldn’t have been there.
“He’s very sorry for all that’s gone on ... he’s a good boy, you know.’’
Having spent three years in custody due to his father’s manipulations, he now faces the unenviable task of rebuilding his life.
So, too, does Sonya Ryan.
Although the verdict brings some closure, nothing can return her daughter to her arms for one more hug.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published in The Advertiser on January 23, 2010.
Originally published as Carly Ryan: A loving girl who fell prey to an online predator
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