Chapter 26

From: dawnwhit70@btinternet.uk

To: beatrice@beatrice-stubbs.com

Subject: Leon Charles

Hi Beatrice

Thanks for your feedback on the seminar. I thought it went pretty well so I’m glad you agree. Your praise matters more than most.

I would say something trite like ‘hope you’re having fun’, but with a murder on site and background checks required on one of your house guests, I’ll just say I hope you’re OK.

Leon Charles. I found out plenty from his own profiles then filled the gaps with a few calls. There’s a pattern here and you’re not going to like it. Our generation would label this sort of man as an egomaniac. Modern psychologists have a variety of terms, mostly involving the word ‘narcissism’. You and I would probably just call him a tosser.

Facts: He has been married and divorced twice, and had a string of engagements. Mostly to women from Eastern European countries. I spoke to a Polish woman and a girl from Lithuania, but there are several others. None of these relationships ended amicably.

He meets these women via his job. He’s a salesman to pubs, arcades and shopping malls. His company rents and services fruit machines and all their variants – pinball, quizmaster, and one-armed bandit type of thing.

On his police record are two cases of assault (both trying to prevent women from leaving his flat) and one restraining order. The case notes on the latter are worrying. He’d been seeing a nurse for about six months. In her statement, she says she ended the relationship because he was too possessive. After the split, she made him return her house key. But he’d made a copy. She came home to find him waiting for her in bed. She changed the locks. When she left the hospital one night, she found flowers on the windscreen of her car. Then her cat went missing. After she’d spent three days frantically searching for the animal, he turned up, pretending he’d found it. That’s when she got the restraining order.

Not Quite Facts: His online profiles are 80% fake. Several pictures of parties in Ibiza, Monaco and Hawaii are stock images. His work history is 90% invention, as are his qualifications. He has a profile on three separate dating sites, each with a slightly different identity and/or age. The one consistent factor is he wants a life partner without children.

Personality: He’s possessive to the point of psychosis. He has a compulsive need for attention. Both those women I spoke to told me he often lost his temper if she looked away while he was talking! He is also a fantasist who fabricates tales of heroism. A busy boy, according to his stories – ex-SAS (yawn, who isn’t), undercover agent for the drugs squad (!) and Red Cross volunteer/White Helmet.

Bottom line: A man with serious reality issues. Steer well clear.

HTH, love Dawn