I told the call handler what I’d heard, what I feared. “I knew I needed to do something so I did the biggest thing I could and dialled the police on 101. In December 2013, Lorin could take no more. “I wanted him to not show up and prove he wasn’t who he claimed to be, but Daynes wouldn’t. “They’d say, ‘Oh, that’s what boys do.’ Or ‘My son was a gamer – he grew out of it.’”īoth Lorin and Barry offered to take Breck to meet Daynes. “I worked as a teaching assistant, I asked staff, teachers, other parents and not one person thought it sounded dangerous,” she says. Lorin believes if it was a daughter enthralled by an online stranger, she would have been taken more seriously. I could see Breck’s face, torn between me or his cool mentor who had the whole world going for him.”
#MOVIE ABOUT ONLINE PREDATORS OFFLINE#
“I’d be telling Breck to get offline and he’d literally have Dayne’s voice in his earphones telling him not to listen. (“Lewis says I shouldn’t have to do chores as it’s the triplets who make the mess.”) When Lorin walked into Breck’s room, Daynes now sent images of wicked witches or goose-stepping Hitlers on screen. It became harder to get Breck offline, to do his homework or his chores. “‘Lewis says I don’t need to finish school as he can get me a Microsoft apprenticeship when I turn 16.’ ‘Lewis says as I don’t drink or smoke and do well in school, I should be allowed to game as long as I want …’” “I’d get a lot of ‘Lewis says …’,” Lorin says. My fear was that he was some 40-year-old paedophile sitting in his underpants.”Īs the months passed, Dayne’s presence loomed larger. “I’d ask why he wasn’t out with friends on a Friday night and he’d say he was too tired. “I might ask what was going on in New York, and he’d say, ‘Not a lot …’ When she’d just returned from a dance class, he’d send a dancing lady across the screen.
When Lorin walked into Breck’s room, he’d say, “My mum’s come in.” While the other boys would go quiet – a mum is enough to silence most teenage boys, Daynes would say, ‘Hey, Mum!’ and start some banter. “To Breck, who still had his baby teeth and saw no evil in the world, Daynes seemed very cool, very exciting,” says Lorin. Other times, he was in Dubai, or off to Syria. Sometimes he was in New York, working for the US government. He claimed to be a 17-year-old computer engineer running a multimillion pound company. While the other members were known to Breck or his friends, Lewis Daynes was not someone they knew in real life. I could hear everything they were saying – I loved hearing Breck’s laugh – and there was nothing very sinister.”Įxcept for one thing – the ringmaster, whose server they played on. “I have to say, I’d rather sit and talk face to face but I could see why they liked it. “There was a gaming screen where they might be on a battlefield, a screen with icons for the boys who were online and another screen for live messaging, with images or music or YouTube clips – whatever they were talking about. “Breck’s bedroom door was always open and he’d sit, with headphones on,” says Lorin. At 14, he was invited into an online gaming group – a ‘virtual clubhouse’ – by school friends. He’d come home, get his homework done, his chores out of the way, then go online.” “He never yelled, swore, slammed the door. Though Breck excelled in school and was an A* student, Lorin describes him as chilled. He was very resourceful, saving birthday and Christmas money, selling and exchanging parts.” “He dismantled and rebuilt them,” says Lorin. He was in the ‘Lego gang’ – a little group who made rockets and guns and ran around playing out little fantasies.” “At school, Breck wasn’t with the footballers, he wasn’t competitive. “From the start, Breck loved fixing things, taking them apart, putting them together,” says Lorin.
Though Barry and Lorin separated in 2006, Barry remained close, having the children every other weekend. Two years later, their triplets were born – Carly, Chloe and Sebastian, now 14. Breck was born in 1999 – his American parents, Lorin and Barry, had come to the UK two years before for Barry’s work as an oil trader. Lorin’s story starts with a son who, like so many other boys, loved gaming.
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