The mother of a teenage girl who was raped and murdered after being lured out to meet a man she met online has developed a new app to help children stay safe.
Sonya Ryan’s daughter Carly was killed by a man who had disguised himself online as a trendy, music-loving teenager called Brandon Kane.
Carly fell in love with “Brandon” over a period of 18 months, during which they texted and sent messages to each other, but when Carly finally agreed to meet her online boyfriend, he turned out to be predator Gary Francis Newman, a “overweight, balding, middle-aged paedophile with sex and murder on his mind”.
When she rejected his advances, he lured her to a beach near Adelaide, where he suffocated her by pushing her face into the sand, before leaving her to drown.
New Ltd reports the new app called Thread will enable kids to stay in touch with emergency services if they find themselves in a dangerous situation.
The app will also send their location while they’re dialing 000.
If the child doesn’t check in with adults as promised, the app can also send an alert with their GPS location.
News Ltd says Newman was an online predator, with more than one victim in his sights.
“When police went to arrest Newman 11 days later they found him once again on the internet logged in as “Brandon” and chatting with a 14-year-old girl from Western Australia,” the report says.
Newman was convicted of murder and given a 29-year non-parole period.
