Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘Catfishing’ victim told internet dating law change possible
A woman tricked into a relationship by a womanising internet liar has received positive news about her campaign to change internet dating law.
Anna Rowe, from Rough Common, has spoken to a former detective who believes a simple amendment to the Sexual Offences Act will make it an offence for someone to misrepresent themselves for the purposes of sex.
The 44-year-old believed she had fallen in love with a single man after meeting him on hookup website Tinder – only to discover he was married with children and had lied about his job and name.
Her story was first published in the Gazette in February, and has since made headlines across the world. Anna also appeared on ITV’S This Morning on Monday.
After watching it, former Kent and Sussex police detective Tara Mcdonnell contacted Anna about her campaign.
Tara was a police officer for 12 years, specialising in sex offences and now runs a dating service which offers a full vetting procedure to its clients.
She said: “I believe parliament just needs to amend Section 76 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to insert a sub-clause that effectively makes it a crime for the defendant to intentionally deceive the complainant as to who they were.
“This would give police the
‘Speaking with Tara has given me the confidence changes are achievable’
power to arrest and subsequently convict on evidence for rape.
“The offence is carried out when the defendant dupes the victim as she would not consent to sex if she knew he was not who he said he was.
“Sadly, the law is not usually retrospective so Anna may still be left without justice, but future victims would get justice through the courts.”
The type of online romance scam Anna fell prey to has come to be known as ‘catfishing’.
She met a man in late 2015 who called himself Antony Ray and they embarked on a passionate relationship.
But when he became distant, Anna began to suspect he was lying. She discovered he was still using Tinder to chat to other women before learning he was a married man.
It was these revelations which prompted Anna to campaign for a change in the law by starting an online petition.
She said: “Speaking with Tara has definitely given me the confidence that the changes are achievable and could in reality be very simple.
“It was great having that kind of thought process backed up by someone with so much experience in the field of sex offences.
“The aim is for my petition to get enough support for MPS to debate a potential amendment in parliament.”
Log on to the change.org website to support Anna’s petition.