The John and Mark case

Heard of this case today and my head went "???" And decided to post it here.

In 2003 an 16-year-old boy stabbed an 14-year-old boy. Initally police believed it was a robbery gone wrong, but after checking CCTV and only noticing that only the two boys were around, they began to suspect from the 16-year-old. The 16-year-old boy (who was later nicknamed "Mark") told police that: "he’d been asked to do so by a British spy mistress called Janet Dobinson, who he’d been communicating with via an Internet chat room. If he completed his mission he’d become a member of the British Secret Service, receive £80 million, meet Tony Blair (the then PM), the Queen and receive sexual favours from Janet, a 44-year-old married woman who lived a double life for Queen and country. Mark had even been given a codename, 47695, and been provided with an abort code, 6969, should the mission be cancelled."

Mark had been a victim of an fantasy life created to him by the 14-year-old boy, nicknamed "John", who plotted his own murder. When investigators seized Mark’s computer they found over 58,000 lines of text within the chat room. As they poured through the copy, they initially believed they were looking for a paedophile pretending to be Janet and grooming Mark. For the past six months, Mark had communicated with a variety of people on the chat room, a site dedicated to Manchester teenagers. There was Rachel, the 16-year-old whom Mark had grown close to; John (the victim) was her stepbrother; Kevin the decidedly creepy self-proclaimed stalker and finally Janet the spy mistress. A multitude of other people had also apparently come and gone on the chat room during this period.

Mark was an student who worked sometimes at a restaurant and did well at school, although not an academic person. He was never in any trouble and was close to his family. He was in many regards, an ordinary teenage lad. His time online, however, began spiralling out of control. Soon he was spending upwards of 12 hours a day on the chat room, gradually becoming more and more obsessed with it.

The chat usually contained infomartion about teenager things, such as sports, movies and clothing, but sex and masturbation were on focus. Mark had initially fallen in love with Rachel, even though their attempts to meet up in real life had never worked out. The chat room took a dark turn when Kevin declared that he’d kidnapped Rachel and would rape and kill her unless Mark recorded himself masturbating via webcam.

Mark was so convinced of Kevin’s threats that he agreed to the terms. Rachel was then apparently released by Kevin, although she would mysteriously disappear from the chat room shortly after.

Mark then grew close with her stepbrother John, even meeting up in person and hanging out. It was then that Janet entered the chat room. Writing only in capital letters, Janet convinced Mark she was a spy and he was the reason she had joined the chat room, to recruit him into MI5.

Over the coming weeks, Janet spun her web of deceit, convincing Mark to carry out ‘tests’ to prove his worthiness before he’d be given his first official mission. On one occasion, she asked him to get John out of school as his life was in danger. According to Janet, John was the single most important person in the country, as he knew the code to access a secret safe hidden at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that only a few countries knew about.

Mark obeyed, convincing John’s school he had a dentist appointment. With each passing day, the fantasy Janet was creating became even wilder, even more unbelievable, yet Mark did not question it. He was infatuated with this woman.

Mark was to carry out oral sex on John to complete the test...

Another test was given. This time the order came from Tony Blair himself, via Janet. Prime Minister Blair wanted John to be seen as gay, therefore Mark was to carry out oral sex on John to complete the test. Mark once again obliged.

Eventually, the time came when Janet asked Mark to carry out his mission.

Janet: ‘Could you stab someone?’

Mark: ‘I haven't really thought about it.’

Janet: ‘Well think please.’

Mark: ‘OK’

Janet informed Mark that the once valuable asset John was now suffering a brain tumour and needed to be put out of his misery. If Mark didn’t complete the task Janet would lose her job and national security would be at risk.

On Sunday 29 June 2003, Mark brought a kitchen knife under the pretence it was for his mother, carefully avoided the CCTV cameras Janet had warned him about and entered the alley with John. He stabbed him twice, once in the stomach and once in the chest and then waited 20 minutes before calling the police. This delay had also been an order Janet had provided, as it would have given John enough time to bleed to death. John was charged with inciting his own murder. Janet was to be the first to arrive on the scene, disguised as a detective who would ensure Mark wasn’t arrested. But Janet never arrived.

After the investigators had poured through the thousands of lines of text from the chat room, they realised most of the people on there were fake. They then realised a number had used the same stylistic variation of the word ‘maybe,’ writing it as ‘mybye’. Janet had used it and so had John.

The police concluded John was the mastermind behind it all; he was every character in that chat room, the puppet master pulling the strings whilst Mark played the role of puppet. John had created the fantasy that led to his own stabbing.

John would recover from his near-fatal wounds and whilst Mark was charged with attempted murder, John was charged with inciting his own murder. In legal terms, it was unique in British criminal history.

When it was unveiled in court, Mark couldn’t believe he’d been so gullible. Why had John done it? By all accounts he too, like Mark, was an ordinary teenager, nothing in his history would suggest he’d be involved in something so terrible. The answer as to why is still up for debate but some claim he loved John to the point where he knew Mark would not reciprocate if the truth were ever revealed. The only way it could end in his head was suicide.

‘Offences of this kind under normal circumstances would result in an extremely lengthy custodial sentence,’ Judge David Maddison said, ‘but these could not be described as any normal circumstances.’ The two were instead given supervision orders, John three years, Mark two. They were ordered never to meet again and they could only go on the Internet with supervision and never onto chat rooms.

Nicholas Clarke, prosecuting, told the court, ‘This case serves as a stark warning of the dangers of the dark side of the internet.’

On Friday, 28 May 2004, both Mark and John appeared before the Manchester Crown Court. Judge David Maddison, the Recorder of Manchester, called the case extraordinary.Jonathan Goldberg for John’s defence claimed that the boy had been having troubles at home and school and was unsure about his sexuality. Goldberg added, “He felt an emotional intimacy with the teenager that he had never experienced before. This is the key to this extraordinary case. It is not going to happen again.”On 28 May 2004 John pleaded guilty to incitement to murder and perverting the course of justice and Mark pleaded guilty to attempted murder. John was given a three-year supervision order and banned from internet chat rooms, from contacting Mark and from using the internet without adult supervision. Mark was given a two-year supervision order for attempted murder and banned from any contact with John.

This was the first case in British law courts of one person inciting another to kill them. Thankfully Mark was not successful in his murderous mission.Following their time in court, both boys were able to reflect more seriously on what they had done. John claimed, “It was probably just a phase I was going through”, and we can only hope that he was right and that both boys have learned a serious lesson through their misdeeds.It is a sad and strange story but a good indicator of how, via the internet, people can be led to believe things that are not true. Combining the fertile imagination of a young mind with a lack of worldly experience can so easily turn a bright, exciting fantasy into something dark and dangerous.

Source: The boy who incited his own murder and Mark and John - The Fantasists

This may be one of the most nonsensical and disturbing crime stories I have ever read on my life. I can't believe how "Mark" fell all for this.

Also, sorry for copying and pasting the text while not making my own's. I'm ashamed to say but sometimes I'm too lazy, but if however this breaks the rules of the forum please delete it. Greetings