The following comes from a longtime reader who has asked me to post it. I have not met him, but, due to the seriousness of the matter he describes, am taking him at his word:
Hi Dawn,If anyone reading this can help R. and his family, please e-mail me, dawneden -at- gmail.com (replacing the "-at-" with an atsign) and I will forward your e-mail to R.
Well we're in need of some serious prayer. My youngest sister, K. (16), told us she was pregnant, and has been secretly seeing a boyfriend, Khy (26). So we met him, he's a very charismatic man, and he told us all sorts of things, that he had a phd, that he had a patent on some kind of machine, that he had inherited a penthouse apartment in SoHo from a rich friend who committed suicide, that he has a house, that he was doing some kind of electrical engineer research, and on a bad year, would make $90 000 a year, and so on. We decided to actually check out his claims, and it turns out that none of them are true, and in fact he is a con man.
His real name is Ronald Gander, and he tried to sell the boeing building, and spent the money on 17 sports cars. He also pretended to offer wireless Internet with a product that doesn't exist. He lives with his mum, and even the car he drives is his mum's car.
You can read about him here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2004/10/29/1231128.htm
http://m.zdnet.com.au/120263956.htm
http://m.zdnet.com.au/120263904.htm
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/8887.html
He was sentenced to six years (I think) and is currently on parole and has to check in with the police 3 times a week. My sister K. for a while continued to believe whatever he told her when we tried to tell her the truth, but it seems he has told her truth now, but she says she doesn't care, and plans to move in with him in about 3 weeks. She wants to become emancipated from our parents, and receive payments for living independently. She also has miscarried, so as you can imagine is in a very vulnerable state.
Now the laws here have the age of consent as 16, as long as the other person is 19 or younger. She was 15 when they began having a sexual relationship. However, the police aren't willing to do anything unless K. wants to make a complaint, is willing to testify, etc. (I have an uncle who is a policeman.) We're all very worried about her, especially our mother, and are afraid that once she leaves, we may never see her again.
I'd be very grateful if you could ask for prayer on this matter from your readers, you can post the whole story about it if you want.
-R.
