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Adults Posing As Minors / Children

Peripart said:
I am reminded of the story a few years ago about some of the "teenagers" at Calais who were hoping to be allowed into the UK. Some of the unkinder tabloids tried to throw some doubt on their alleged ages, no doubt in part due to their beards and lined faces...
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So far we've been pleasantly surprised, but just a subtle nudge to remind everybody that this is not going to become (another) thread on the subject of immigration.

Although the Otter's pun was rather droll.
 
Yithian said:
So far we've been pleasantly surprised, but just a subtle nudge to remind everybody that this is not going to become (another) thread on the subject of immigration.

Although the Otter's pun was rather droll.
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Understood. I was just mentioning something that appeared connected, but I won't drift into contentious areas.
 
Peripart said:
Understood. I was just mentioning something that appeared connected, but I won't drift into contentious areas.
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Cheers, Gov.

Was just taking your post as an opportunity to make the point.
 
GNC said:
No - that was sheer coincidence. The weird thing was, all the teens he had befriended were totally fine with his deception, as far as I could tell. I hae ma doots.
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Hmm I recall this curious tale. I have a vague memory that the “Brandon Lee” persona was chosen quite deliberately though to mimic Bruce’s son.
 
Quake42 said:
Hmm I recall this curious tale. I have a vague memory that the “Brandon Lee” persona was chosen quite deliberately though to mimic Bruce’s son.
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Not according to my friend who knew him - think the "Lee" bit was from Christopher Lee.
 
GNC said:
Not according to my friend who knew him - think the "Lee" bit was from Christopher Lee.
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Fair enough. Weird tale in any event. Although I did watch “Never been kissed” the other week which was basically the same story but with the two twenty something fakes as the heroes.
 
I work with someone who was in the same year, although not in the same class, as Brandon Lee at Bearsden Academy. Apparently kids all knew his real age and he reckons the teaching staff must have known exactly what was going on.
 
Carse said:
I work with someone who was in the same year, although not in the same class, as Brandon Lee at Bearsden Academy. Apparently kids all knew his real age and he reckons the teaching staff must have known exactly what was going on.
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Why did they tolerate it? Isn't it potentially dangerous to have an adult who covers their identity and hasn't had any kind of background check working round kids?
 
James_H said:
Isn't it potentially dangerous to have an adult who covers their identity and hasn't had any kind of background check working round kids?
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The "Brandon Lee" case came to light in 1994. It was not until 2002, the date of the Soham murders, that the educational establishment went into panic mode with background checks. Before that date, agencies, for example, would tell all candidates that checks would be done. Often they were not. There was a lot of catching-up!

Tighter safeguarding would not necessarily have helped the victims of the Soham case, since Huntley was trusted as the boyfriend of their teaching assistant. The current application form for a DBS contains a question on cohabitants but - given the longevity of many relationships - it looks like a token gesture to police something unpoliceable. :cool:
 
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JamesWhitehead said:
The "Brandon Lee" case came to light in 1994. It was not until 2002, the date of the Soham murders, that the educational establishment went into panic mode with background checks. Before that date, agencies, for example, would tell all candidates that checks would be done. Often they were not. There was a lot of catching-up!

Tighter safeguarding would not necessarily have helped the victims of the Soham case, since Huntley was trusted as the boyfriend of their teaching assistant. The current application form for a DBS contains a question on cohabitants but - given the longevity of many relationships - it looks like a token gesture to police something unpoliceable. :cool:
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I remain wholly unconvinced about the whole DBS / safeguarding issue. The violent paedo teacher I came up against eventually got put away but when it was being sentenced the defence barrister asked the judge that some restrictions be lifted in case the paedo found itself inadvertently teaching under 16's! I guffawed loudly in the court room and got nudged by the Police officer...
 
Peripart said:
That's a good question. Even Big Brother Blair hasn't managed to get Thoughtcrime onto the statute books yet. I've no idea what the situation is in the USA, though.
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I seem to recall from the 1980s, when I was an officer in HM Custome & Excise, that someone who is tricked by a drug dealer (for example) into buying a non-narcotic can still be charged as if he/she had actually bought the real thing. So someone walking away from a drug deal with a holdall full of baking powder instead of heroin, who is stopped by the police, can't breathe a sigh of relief at inadvertantly 'getting away with it'.*

I assume that it's 'intent' that counts.

I don't know if the same thing holds true in the above case, however.

* I don't know if this is still the case in legal terms.
 
Recollection is that the Brandon Lee case was somebody who wanted to retake A-Levels (from a point of view of having had a lot longer to assimilate the information necesssary to pass with the right grades) and then get into medical school under a false identiy and assumed age. Apparently he'd failed at the usual age - 18 - and wanted a second go. apparently he very nearly managed it, too... he was easily hitting the grade predictions required for med college.
 
Here's a clickbait style list of various such adult impostors, which may be useful as a starting point for those who wish to read more in depth.

The 'Kurim case' is glancingly mentioned - a truly bizarre and disturbing story if read in full.

mom.me/kids/6620-adults-who-pretended-be-kids-go-back-school/amp/
 
AgProv said:
Recollection is that the Brandon Lee case was somebody who wanted to retake A-Levels
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I've just downloaded the Kindle version of his book, which is an incident-centric autobiography, as far as I can tell. Interesting stuff- or it will be, when I get to read more of it....(I found-out about it via @Frideswide 's link above, thanks for that)
 
More on the 'Kurim Case'. Be aware before reading that this story includes child abuse and is horrific throughout. It turns out that the instigator was an adult posing as a child who manipulated another adult (somehow?) to torture their own children. After going on the run, the (female) culprit posed as a male schoolchild in another country.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/71em36
 
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Ermintruder said:
I've just downloaded the Kindle version of his book, which is an incident-centric autobiography, as far as I can tell. Interesting stuff- or it will be, when I get to read more of it....(I found-out about it via @Frideswide 's link above, thanks for that)
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I read the sample and, overuse of the thesaurus aside, it does seem an intriguing tale. I was surprised that no one really seems to have commented on the book - There are no reviews I can see, anyway.
 
This 21-year-old Georgia man had wandered off and began impersonating a teenager.
21-year-old Georgia man accused of impersonating 14-year-old high schooler

A man is in jail after he was arrested after authorities say he impersonated a teenager.

Abay Holmes is facing charges of giving false information and a false name to deputies.

Last week, a woman found Holmes walking around Baldwin County and authorities said the 21-year-old told her that he was 14 years old and was homeless and didn’t have a family.

The woman decided to take him into her home and feed him and buy him new clothes. She even enrolled the man at Baldwin County High School’s virtual program.

The Baldwin County Sheriff’s office said Holmes was never on the school’s campus or had any interaction with students, but he did receive a school laptop.

After several days of Holmes being with the woman, sheriff’s officials say he began being disrespectful toward her.

Deputies were called to the home during a fight on Aug. 25. They later found Holmes walking alone outside and he gave them the same information about him being a teenager, deputies said.

When authorities began getting his information and fingerprints to place him in a foster family, they received the information that he was actually 21. He was then arrested and charged.

Deputies contacted Holmes’ family in Atlanta, who say that he’s been suffering from mental health issues and that he has been off his medication. ...
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SOURCE: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/21...old-high-schooler/4SELD7KG2JCT7MLLRHLWBB5264/
 
This 28-year-old Florida woman impersonated a high school student for a no less disturbing reason than some others mentioned earlier - simply to promote her Instagram page.
Police: Woman posed as student to promote Instagram page

A 28-year-old woman who wanted to promote her Instagram page attempted to blend in with students at a Miami-area high school, police said.

Monday’s stunt at American Senior High School landed Audrey Francisquini in jail, where she’s facing charges of burglary, interfering with a school function and resisting arrest without violence, records show.

Francisquini started handing out pamphlets printed with her Instagram account after sneaking onto the campus around 8:30 a.m. Monday, police said. She had a black backpack and carried a skateboard as she walked through the hallways, recording herself.

School security tracked her down as she was wandering the hallways while students were in classrooms, an arrest report said. ...

Authorities tracked her down through her Instagram page and arrested her later Monday at her home in North North Miami Beach.

The school system will be conducting a thorough review of the incident ... They will be looking into how she was able to sneak into the school and elude security several times. ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/oddities-dd432fb7433f47a38aa0b4411097970b
 
This 30-year-old Texas woman was arrested after impersonating her own 13-year-old daughter at school.
Woman Filmed Herself Posing as 13-Year-Old Daughter in School, Called It a ‘Social Experiment’

A Texas woman has been arrested after posting video of herself posing as her 13-year-old daughter and sneaking into the child’s school. She said she did it to highlight security gaps amid mass shootings. Casey Garcia, 30, was booked into the El Paso County Jail on Friday, records show.

A YouTube account in her name carries a video in which Garcia–wearing glasses, a yellow Marvel hoodie, and face mask–described herself entering her daughter’s school. ...

It is toward the end of the video in which she described herself getting caught and sent to the principal’s office. ...

In a follow up video, she said she did this to highlight security gaps amid mass shootings.

“I bet you anything someone else can do this,” she said. “This is why I did this.”

She said she was only caught after seven periods when a teacher confronted her after class. She told her she snuck in as a “social experiment.” ...
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FULL STORY: https://lawandcrime.com/crime/woman...hter-in-school-called-it-a-social-experiment/
 
Vardoger said:
I was almost posting this as a "strange crime".
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I know what you mean ... That would have been one of my first choices otherwise. Some time ago I realized we had enough cases of this sort to warrant giving the adult-posing-as-kid theme its own dedicated thread, so I assembled this one out of the various postings scattered across the forum's content.
 
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