A Case of on-line Grooming and Murder "The Carly Ryan Case".

The following deals with online grooming and child exploitation, which may be triggering for some readers.

Australian teenager Carly Ryan spent months chatting online with someone she thought was an 18-year-old male musician from the U.S. who had recently moved to Victoria. He was a middle-aged predator who became obsessed with her and furious when she rejected him.

When 14-year-old Carly Ryan started talking to a new friend online in 2006, the internet was a different place. MySpace was the dominant social media site. Facebook was in its infancy. Instagram didn't exist. And there was little public awareness of terms like online grooming, cyberstalking, or internet predator.

Still, Carly's mother, Sonya Ryan, was cautious about her daughter's behaviour online ...