Bad nanny's chilling note: Scam artist Samantha Cookes who conned vulnerable families wrote disturbing message about death of her baby daughter the day she was due to be adopted

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Convicted scam artist Samantha Cookes wrote a disturbing message after the death of her infant daughter in 2008, a new documentary has revealed.
Rebecca Fitzgerald, Lucy Hart, Lucy Fitzwilliams, and Sadie Harris are just some of the aliases used by Cookes, the jailed serial fraudster and fantasist with victims in the UK and Ireland.
Her story is the subject of a BBC documentary that airs tonight, which seeks to untangle her web of lies over two episodes.
But before she became the con artist known by many different names, she was a young mother whose first born - a daughter named Martha Isabel Cookes - tragically died in infancy, on the day she was due to be taken away for adoption.
It appeared she never healed from her past as Cookes - who was in March sentenced to three years in prison for scamming the state of €60,000 in welfare benefits - penned a note denying she had any role in Martha's death.
'I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner that I did not murder my daughter,' Cookes, then 23, wrote in a diary that would be discovered by one of her victims who has shared her story in the documentary titled 'Bad Nanny'.
The scamster was referring to the inquest that found her four-month-old daughter had died due to accidental suffocation. Cookes' declaration she did not 'murder' Martha stood out because at no point was there any such accusation against her.
Cookes, who had at least five different identities, was living as a disability activist Carrie Jade Williams and posted a TikTok in 2022 that ultimately led to her downfall.
'I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner that I did not murder my daughter,' Cookes, then 23, wrote in a diary that would be discovered by one of her victims who has shared her story in the documentary titled 'Bad Nanny'
The 'sickfluencer' who used the platform to share her experiences living with the terminal Huntington's Disease found herself in the spotlight after she claimed she was being sued for €450,000 by her 'ableist' Airbnb guests in a now-viral video.
There was an outpouring of sympathy for the disability activist on social media - until the world learned the truth behind the video. 'Carrie' wasn't real and neither were the heartless Airbnb guests the internet was looking for.
The video went onto expose Cookes as a notorious scam artist with a long history of conning vulnerable families out of thousands of pounds while posing as someone qualified to look after children.
Before she became Carrie in 2022, Cookes was autism therapist Rebecca in 2017, au pair Lucy Hart in 2014, and a surrogate mother called Claudia in 2010.
In 2008, however, she was still Samantha, 20-year-old whose daughter Martha Isabel Cookes died in infancy under mysterious circumstances.
An inquest into the baby's death in 2009 revealed that Martha died due to 'accidental' suffocation when a V-shaped pillow wrapped around the baby's neck while her mother was sleeping.
It was at this point Cookes made the statement later found by Layla, a mother-of-two living in Tullamore, who was one of her first victims.
Layla hired 'Lucy Hart' to look after her two children after finding the fake profile on an au pair website in 2014.
Speaking on the documentary, Layla revealed she didn't carry out any background checks on 'Lucy' and 'took her at face value' after they bonded over both being English women living in Ireland.
'She was Mary Poppins,' Layla said as her daughter Charlie, who also appeared in the documentary, described 'Lucy' as a 'big ball of fun'.
Layla explained how 'Lucy' regaled them with stories about her life as she was always looking to orchestrate a 'wow' moment. The mother-of-two recalled 'Lucy' telling her was adopted and that her mother Jane Hart manufactured sandpaper for B&Q.
Around the same time that Cookes entered their home as Lucy, the family were grappling with rising rent prices while looking for somewhere to live.
'Lucy', who claimed to be a Jehovah's Witness, said a church elder had offered to let them live in a more affordable home in the area.
After packing up their home and handing in their notice with the landlord, the family prepared for a move to the new property.
However, every time Layla asked 'Lucy' whether they could view their new house, 'there was always an excuse', she said.
It would become clear as day 'Lucy' had conned them after she pretended to faint at a Tesco while they were en-route to view the house, as Layla said: 'Why didn't I pick up on this sooner? There is no house.'
'Lucy' disappeared pretty quickly after this incident, telling the family she was going on a 'writers retreat'.
As Layla began clearing up 'Lucy's' room, she discovered the ominous note that made her blood run cold.
'I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner, and I did not murder my daughter,' it read. 'I pray she is at peace
Speaking on the documentary through tears, Layla said: 'Who have we had looking after our children?'
She continued: 'She never mentioned any children to me, that she has ever had any children, that's strange, very strange.
'As a parent leaving my children in her care, if I had known for one second that she had children things would have been a whole lot different.
'I would warn anyone about her, don't let her in your home, don't let her in.'
Martha's father was one of Cookes' former boyfriends, who remained anonymous for the documentary as he opened up about their toxic relationship in 2007.
They were both 18 years old when they started dating, but he claimed he ended the relationship when he began to spot Cookes's pattern of lying. However, she revealed she was pregnant with his child and began bombarding him with messages and calls.
He said: 'Was it real, was it a tactic? That whole "being in a family" thing was a real wish for her, it was something she would have referred to.
'The whole period is not something I look on with much pride. My involvement in pregnancy was next to zero really. There was going to be an adoption.'
In July 2008, Cookes gave birth to Martha but she tragically died on the same day she was to be given up for adoption.
The father said: 'I found out that baby Martha had died from a local newspaper report. There had been this death on the day that Martha was going to be taken. Those details do raise questions for me.'
In 2013, the circumstances into baby Martha's death were to be re-examined by the high court due to concerns over her death - however by this point, Cookes had been reported as a missing person to UK police after she fled to Ireland.
The case was closed and Martha's 2009 accidental cause of death still stands today.
In 2010, Cookes started a relationship with a man, whose identity is not being revealed to protect him and his family. The pair had a child.
The same year, Cookes, then 23, offered her services as a surrogate on Facebook.
After making contact with a couple about being their surrogate, she passed on the contact of a woman called Claudia, who had previously used her as a surrogate. Claudia gave the excited couple a glowing review of Samantha.
Having never met her face-to-face, the couple gave Cookes £1,200 out of their savings to cover the cost of the insemination kit, legal fees and other expenses.
Sadly the baby never came, and as both Cookes and Claudia avoided the couple's messages, they realised they had been duped. The police were contacted and a 23-year-old woman was arrested at her home in Shropshire.
The case came to trial in 2011 and Cookes pleaded guilty to fraud. She received a suspended sentence of nine months in prison and a fine of £1,890 to be paid to the couple.
But what the trial also revealed was that Cookes was Claudia - her first fake persona.
Meanwhile in 2012, her second child was taken away from her due to welfare concerns. Social services requested a psychological assessment of Cookes and she was diagnosed with Pseudologia Fantastica.
PF, also known as pathological lying or mythomania, is a mental disorder characterised by persistent, pervasive, and often compulsive lying.
In 2013 she became pregnant with her third child with the same man. Determined not to lose custody of this unborn child, Cookes fled to Ireland in the winter of 2013 and delivered the baby in January 2014.
However, a neighbour reported her to Irish social services and the child was taken into care. After appearing at Irish family court, the father was again given custody and the baby was transported back to the UK.
By August 2014, she had lost custody of both her living children after Martha's death six years ago.
A month later she had changed her name to Lucy Hart and was working for Layla as an au pair. In January 2015, she left Layla's home under the pretense of attending a writer's retreat after her lies were discovered.
In 2016, Cookes moved to County Geery and became Lucy Fitzwilliam and in 2017, Rebecca Fitzgerald arrived in Fermoy.
In 2019, she became disability activist Carrie Jade Williams, a prize-winning writer, autism guru and terminal illness sufferer who posted routinely about being diagnosed with Huntington's Disease.
The fraudster went viral on TikTok in 2022 after claiming to havebeen sued by Airbnb guests because they couldn't stand to be around a disabled person, leaving millions outraged for her.
The story even started the #thisworldcanbeaccessible trend.
But the it was later revealed that the story was completely made up, and Carrie was outed on a podcast called Carrie Jade Does Not Exist, which is hosted by VICE journalist Kat Denkinson and comedian Sue Perkins.
In 2024, she was discovered working as au pair Sadie Harris in rural Ireland for a family of six - having rebranded as a 'conservative Christian' who 'doesn't think women should wear trousers'.
She is believed to have worked for family for six months before fleeing once their child's school alerted them to her true identity.
In March 2025, Cookes was jailed in Ireland for deception and theft charges after she claimed thousands in welfare benefits for a terminal illness that turned out not to exist.