Finally we get someone doing a proper deep dive on this whole thing!
Great piece except for the awful paddywackery in the first paragraph
Fantastic read. Stories like this fascinate me.
The guards really don’t come off well in this, do they? How many times was she reported after scamming someone and nothing happened
You’d think an article about a career con artist would share some better photos of her to help her identification and (eventual?) arrest.
> She said Cookes offered “therapy sessions” for her oldest daughter, who was 8 years old at the time. What happened in their sessions is unknown, but McDonald said the girl has since needed actual therapy to undo the damage caused by Cookes.
Found this part especially grim. A poor child damaged by this lady pretending to be a therapist.
I have a family member who was scammed by this woman.
The writing group they were in are all so deeply upset and genuinely afraid of this woman. She has their email addresses, mobile numbers, home addresses and DoBs as she requested these items purporting they were required for paperwork she was processing for contracts with agents.
She has gaslit so many people, taken money from them all, made them question their sanity and did serious harm to that group alone, not to mention the others mentioned in the article.
She also has drafts of their works and some people are terrified she will steal their work and present it as her own when she creates a new alias.
One person in that writing group has since had a break down over this all and another has stopped writing altogether.
This woman is an appalling person and well knows the harm she has done to people, she simply does not care. Regardless of the loss of her daughter 14 years ago, she has actively hurt other people and repeatedly lied and stolen from so many people.
On the extremely slim off chance she comes across this post while googling herself, can I direct a pointed message to her (and I appreciate I sound a bit demented, but seeing what this person did to my own flesh and blood please consider I take this very personally):
Go fuck yourself for what you have done. You have known throughout everything you have done that you have been hurting other people.
I cannot wait until you are caught and I pray that the courts prove you knew right from wrong at the times you committed your crimes and you are punished in accordance for this rather than weasle out of it but still given the therapy you clearly need to stop this reprehensible cycle. Not for your sake but for the sake of your victims and any future victims that have the misfortune to ever have you enter their lives.
Regardless of the trauma you underwent, that gave you *no* right to hurt so many people and get people’s hopes up on being successful writers just to crush their dreams. You are a twisted individual and you should not be out and about in general society. You need help. You will eventually run out of places to run and you will atone for your crimes one way or another.
You are scum.
I fucking knew from the second I saw her tiktoks something wasn’t right but I never cared enough to find out what the truth was.
I don’t have the best instincts when it comes to people but her tiktoks screamed bullshit. Glad to see I got it right in this case.
So she’s vanished again? Do the guards have an arrest warrant or on her?
We watched this unfold on reddit. I must admit, I initially fell for the fraud. Being disabled, I had seen similar behaviour being called out. Though in hindsight, the extreme nature of the claims should have been a massive red flag.
I think she will get her wish as her story probably is destined for Netflix!
I just read the Vice article, which I was led to by. TikTok, aft never hearing of this person or story before. Now I know the gist, but I’m confused as to why everyone mentions being afraid of her and speaking under anonymity. Nothing I’m the story mentions that she is violent. Did I miss something?
12 comments
She’s English? From Gloucester?
It’s true what they say. Never not at it.
Finally we get someone doing a proper deep dive on this whole thing!
Great piece except for the awful paddywackery in the first paragraph
Fantastic read. Stories like this fascinate me.
The guards really don’t come off well in this, do they? How many times was she reported after scamming someone and nothing happened
You’d think an article about a career con artist would share some better photos of her to help her identification and (eventual?) arrest.
> She said Cookes offered “therapy sessions” for her oldest daughter, who was 8 years old at the time. What happened in their sessions is unknown, but McDonald said the girl has since needed actual therapy to undo the damage caused by Cookes.
Found this part especially grim. A poor child damaged by this lady pretending to be a therapist.
I have a family member who was scammed by this woman.
The writing group they were in are all so deeply upset and genuinely afraid of this woman. She has their email addresses, mobile numbers, home addresses and DoBs as she requested these items purporting they were required for paperwork she was processing for contracts with agents.
She has gaslit so many people, taken money from them all, made them question their sanity and did serious harm to that group alone, not to mention the others mentioned in the article.
She also has drafts of their works and some people are terrified she will steal their work and present it as her own when she creates a new alias.
One person in that writing group has since had a break down over this all and another has stopped writing altogether.
This woman is an appalling person and well knows the harm she has done to people, she simply does not care. Regardless of the loss of her daughter 14 years ago, she has actively hurt other people and repeatedly lied and stolen from so many people.
On the extremely slim off chance she comes across this post while googling herself, can I direct a pointed message to her (and I appreciate I sound a bit demented, but seeing what this person did to my own flesh and blood please consider I take this very personally):
Go fuck yourself for what you have done. You have known throughout everything you have done that you have been hurting other people.
I cannot wait until you are caught and I pray that the courts prove you knew right from wrong at the times you committed your crimes and you are punished in accordance for this rather than weasle out of it but still given the therapy you clearly need to stop this reprehensible cycle. Not for your sake but for the sake of your victims and any future victims that have the misfortune to ever have you enter their lives.
Regardless of the trauma you underwent, that gave you *no* right to hurt so many people and get people’s hopes up on being successful writers just to crush their dreams. You are a twisted individual and you should not be out and about in general society. You need help. You will eventually run out of places to run and you will atone for your crimes one way or another.
You are scum.
I fucking knew from the second I saw her tiktoks something wasn’t right but I never cared enough to find out what the truth was.
I don’t have the best instincts when it comes to people but her tiktoks screamed bullshit. Glad to see I got it right in this case.
So she’s vanished again? Do the guards have an arrest warrant or on her?
We watched this unfold on reddit. I must admit, I initially fell for the fraud. Being disabled, I had seen similar behaviour being called out. Though in hindsight, the extreme nature of the claims should have been a massive red flag.
I think she will get her wish as her story probably is destined for Netflix!
I just read the Vice article, which I was led to by. TikTok, aft never hearing of this person or story before. Now I know the gist, but I’m confused as to why everyone mentions being afraid of her and speaking under anonymity. Nothing I’m the story mentions that she is violent. Did I miss something?