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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
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
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.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV: Will we ever know the truth about ALL this serial scammer's evil lies?
Despite her eager smile and open face, Samantha Cookes is a compulsive liar. She is also a deeply evil woman. As the true-crime documentary Bad Nanny unfolded, chilling parallels with another highly plausible but evil criminal emerged. For anyone who finds it impossible to believe in killer nurse Lucy Letby 's guilt, this two-part report, which concludes tonight, should be required viewing. None of the charges against Cookes, a 37-year-old serial scammer, is as appalling as Letby's murder of at least seven babies on a neonatal ward — though there are disturbing circumstances around the death of Cookes's own infant daughter in 2008. Letby operated by befriending the people whose babies she murdered. Gloucester-born Cookes has a record of defrauding friends with scams of exceptional callousness. In 2012, for instance, she posed as a willing surrogate for a Yorkshire couple desperate to have a baby. She took thousands of pounds from them, and then disappeared. Turning up in Ireland under another name, she sought out mothers with disabled children and weaselled her way into their lives, before taking their money. In 2022, at the height of the TikTok craze, she launched her most brazen fraud — masquerading as a terminally ill patient facing death with inspirational courage. Social media is so overpopulated with people seeking attention for their diseases, real or imaginary, that a word has been coined for them: 'sickfluencers'. But Cookes, now calling herself Carrie Jade Williams, took her pretence to extreme levels, by claiming that she was being sued by an American couple who had rented her home on Airbnb. These paying guests, she said, had been traumatised by her illness, and were now demanding £450,000 in compensation. Stated so baldly, it's all an obvious lie, but Cookes is a highly convincing liar. Money poured in to help her. She has been diagnosed with a psychological condition called 'pseudologica fantastica', or pathological lying. But that doesn't explain her obsession with targeting mothers of young, often fragile children. Cookes was eventually arrested for benefits fraud and is serving a four-year sentence. The whole complex saga was recounted by a dozen or more of her victims, but the fraudster herself refused to comment, so we never fully understood what drove her to invent such vicious lies — just as no one really knows what goes on in Letby's head. On at least two occasions, when she fled a neighbourhood overnight, she left sheafs of incriminating notes — similar to the confessions scrawled on Post-its that helped to convict Letby. 'I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner that I did not murder my daughter,' read one. Her baby, Martha, was found suffocated in her cot, hours before she was due to be handed over to social workers from an adoption agency. A verdict of accidental death was recorded. Whether that or anything else in Cookes's life can be taken as true, we'll never know.
BreakingNews.ie
5 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Man (29) told gardaí that 'thoughts in his head' led him to slash victim's neck
A man told gardaí he slashed the neck of a fellow resident at an addiction treatment centre because of 'thoughts and images' in his head that his family would be murdered, a court heard on Tuesday. Sean Beumer (29) pleaded 'not guilty by reason of insanity' on the opening day of his trial to charges of assaulting the victim causing him harm and to producing a improvised 'shiv' or knife during the attack. Advertisement The trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard that the victim told gardaí he was attacked from behind by Mr Beumer and had his neck 'slashed'. Mr Beumer, with an address at Edenmore Crescent, Raheny, Dublin 5, told gardaí the 'thoughts' in his head had 'brainwashed' him into erroneously believing that he and his family would be murdered, and that if he hurt another person he would save himself and his family from harm's way. At the time Mr Beumer was residing at Cuan Mhuire addiction treatment centre in Bruree, Co Limerick, where he and the victim were participating in an alcohol detox programme. The trial, before Judge Colin Daly and a jury of seven men and five women, heard that Mr Beumer's previously prescribed medications were 'discontinued' in line with normal detox protocols at the centre. Advertisement Mr Beumer had been admitted to the alcohol detox programme on November 29th, 2019, and the attack on the victim occurred 15 days later on December 13th. Sergeant Larkin agreed with the accused's barrister, senior counsel Lorcan Connolly, who said that Mr Beumer told gardaí that the urge to harm someone in order to relieve his bad thoughts was 'building' throughout the days he was off his medication 'and he cracked'. The attack occurred at the smoking area of the treatment centre at around 1.30am on the morning in question. After his arrest Mr Beumer told gardaí: 'I went into the smoking room and put him [the victim] into a sleeper hold and tried to cut his face.' Advertisement 'It was all building up after 10 days, all these thoughts, I just exploded,' Mr Beumer said. Mr Beumer told gardaí he was 'relived' when he carried out the attack , although he said his intention was to 'cut' the man's 'face' but he 'couldn't see in the dark'. He told gardaí that after the attack he put his bloodied hoody top in a bin. Sergeant Larkin told the court that after he arrived at the scene later on the morning he found Mr Beumer in his room kneeling and praying by his bed. Advertisement Sergeant Larkin agreed with Mr Connolly that the accused had expressed remorse and he was cooperative with the Garda investigation. The court heard Mr Beumer told gardaí the attack was 'not personal'. 'He [the victim] was the only [resident] awake, it was not personal, I was doing it to save my family,' Mr Beumer told gardai. 'I was brainwashed into thinking it was the right thing to do.' Advertisement 'I was ill, sick, depressed, I was asking to leave and they said 'No', I didn't know what else to do,' Mr Beamer told gardaí. When asked if he had wanted to kill the victim, Mr Beumer told gardaí: 'No, just hurt him'. 'Yeah I did it, I'm admitting to it because I don't want it hanging over me.' 'I'm so sorry for what i done, I was pressurised into doing it.' Mr Beumer claimed that another resident, whose name he couldn't remember, had shown him how to make a weapon by fixing unguarded razors to the plastic handle of a disposable razor. The court heard that the victim and the accused had become friends while resident at the centre and they had been playing checkers together in Mr Beumer's room moments before the attack. CCTV footage played in court showed Mr Beumer following the victim out of the room towards the smoking area. The footage showed the victim later with blood around his neck approaching a nurse at the centre. Sergeant Larkin said one of the victim's slash wounds ran across the length of his neck. Sergeant Larkin said one of the centre's staff members, Sr Agnes Fitzgerald, had 'innocently' cleaned up some of the blood at the scene as she was 'not forensically aware'. Sr Fitzgerald told gardaí that she handed the weapon used in the attack to gardai after it was found by a volunteer staff member Michael Barrett. A forensic scientist attached to the State science laboratory described the weapon as a 'shiv' or makeshift knife. Michael Barrett told gardaí the shiv 'was like something you'd see in the movies' and that he saw 'a lot of blood' near the scene leading towards the victim's room, which was situated two doors from Mr Beumer's room. Mr Barrett said he saw 'cuts to [the victim's] neck' and that Mr Beumer was 'praying and kneeling at his bed' before going for 'a shower'. A staff nurse who was on duty on the night in question told gardai that the victim approached her bleeding from his neck and hand. The nurse said she 'applied pressure' to the victim's wounds and brought hm to his room as Gardai and an ambulance were alerted. Garda David Hggins, of Bruff station, said he found the victim had suffered 'a slashed throat' and he had taken a formal statement from the man and secured his clothing for forensic tests. A medical report sustained three lacerations to his neck, including one which was seven niches in length, as well as a laceration to his hand. The victim told gardaí a man he believed to be Mr Beumer, whom he called 'the Dub', had 'slashed open my neck'. The man said he had 'no idea why the attack happened'. 'I got choked out from behind. When I woke I saw blood dripping everywhere. I remember being choked and being told 'go to sleep',' the man told gardai. Blood samples taken from a hoody top worn by Mr Beumer when he said he attacked the victim were forensically examined and found to be a match for the victim's DNA. The trial continues on Wednesday.
