James Blake (no, not that one) was a successful marketing executive. However, his life changed when he began noticing a number of fake social media accounts being set up using pictures of him.

This ultimately led to Blake receiving scores of messages, with many suggesting someone using his identity had been dating them, or in some cases had taken as much as £50,000 from them.

The Belfast-born entrepreneur decided to track them down, with this becoming the focus of 2023’s BBC doc Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang.

This search ultimately led Blake face-to-face with the scammers who had stolen his identity, and now he is on an even more wild search as he is the presenter for a brand new BBC documentary Hunting the Online Sex Predators.

Hunting the Online Sex Predators follows Blake investigating a dark side of the internet – cybersex crimes.

In an exclusive interview with LADbible, Blake revealed that he was shocked to find parts of the internet he ‘never knew existed’, and that the internet’s problems with sexual exploitation is far more worrying than many know.

The presenter spoke about how they were part of a generation who grew up on the internet, having gained 100,000 followers on Bebo as a young person.

He went on to say: “I like to think I have a very good understanding of the online world, you know, it’s a big part of my life.

“But going out there to the Philippines and seeing the effect that the internet is having on people’s lives out there, meeting survivors of trafficking that have been abused online, specifically via live streaming into the UK, which, again, was really shocking to see that.”

As part of the documentary, Blake joins a Filipino police raid and speaks to victims of trafficking, but also discovered in the Phillipines that the UK is one of the biggest consumers of online content that exploits children.

He went on to say: “It really opened my eyes to go ‘Wow. Hold on a second. There’s a whole side to the internet’.

“You forget that there’s this whole other world outside of the UK and when you actually see that, and you meet people, and you’re talking to them, and you hear the stories and how it’s completely changed their lives for the worse and the horrible things that have happened – it’s really shocking.”

He finally added: “One of the things that really stood out to me when we were on that journey of making the film is the fact that at any given time you can be two clicks away from exploitive child content, which is just crazy.

“I mean, I never knew that was a thing and then also the fact that UK men are one of the biggest consumers of online streaming of children, like that is just, again, horrendous.

“It’s something that, you know, I had no idea about at all. I did not know this was a thing. Didn’t know how difficult it was to stop. Didn’t know what was going on. So it’s really made me cautious.”

Hunting the Online Sex Predators airs on BBC One at 10.40pm tonight, February 25.

The former YouTuber, 43, and family therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, 55, were arrested at Hildebrandt’s house in Utah in August 2023.

Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped the property and informed a neighbour of what had been going on.

The child had duct tape around his ankles and wrists, and was covered in several wounds. Another child was later found in a similar condition.

Later that year, the pair – who accumulated over one billion views on controversial YouTube channel 8 Passengers – were convicted after pleading guilty to aggravated child abuse.

Franke was given four counts of one to 15 years in prison. But she will only serve a maximum of 30 years due to an Utah law on capping consecutive sentences.

Kevin Franke, who fell in love with Ruby as soon as he met her in 2000, wasn’t aware that she would later go on to abuse two of their six children.

“I’m not ashamed to say that after being married over 20 years to that woman, I truly did and still do love her,” the 46-year-old told People.

“But that doesn’t excuse what she did, and it doesn’t excuse how she hurt our children and how she hurt me.

“There’s some bridges that you just can’t cross and then cross back. She burned the bridges, and so I’m moving on.

“And I’m going to do what’s best for my children, for my family, and for myself, and that’s not going to include her.”

Kevin said he is currently in the process of divorcing Ruby and that the pair are ‘close’ to a settlement.

“The last letter that I received from her from prison was maybe in March or April of last year,” he added.

“And then I requested the Department of Corrections to ask her to stop writing me.

“I didn’t want to hear anymore. I didn’t like what she was saying.”

The father-of-six, who works as an engineering consultant, said he was ‘not going to share’ what was in the letters.

For the first time, Kevin and his oldest son Chad, 20, are speaking about what happened in Hulu’s three-part docuseries, Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, which will be available to stream on Hulu from 27 February.

Full timeline of the Ruby Franke case

Starting a YouTube channel and initial suspicions

Franke started her parenting YouTube channel 8 Passengers with now ex-husband Kevin, amassing over 2.5 million subscribers before it was deleted in 2023 following the arrest.

Several subscribers became suspicious of child abuse, with a petition being signed for the police to investigate the family, citing the numerous questionable videos uploaded.

Franke joins ConneXions with Jodi Hildebrandt

The mum told critics in a 2021 interview for The Wrap that she was showing everyone ‘what a responsible mother looks like’.

She stopped uploading videos to the channel in 2022, joining Mormon therapist Hildebrandt’s ConneXions podcast.

Their divisive opinions on subjects such as eating disorders, blaming rape victims, and criticising immigrants drew the wrong kind of attention.

Franke and Hildebrandt’s arrest

Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on child abuse charges in August 2023.

The Santa Clara Public Safety Department were called to the Ivins neighbourhood in Utah after a neighbour was alerted by Franke’s ’emaciated’ 12-year-old son, who escaped to knock on their door to ask for help.

He had visible marks and wounds from duct tape put around his ankles, and asked for some food and water.

Police found his 10-year-old sister in a ‘similar physical condition of malnourishment’ in Hildebrandt’s house.

Family members speak out

Franke’s oldest daughter, Shari, wrote on Instagram on the day of the arrests: “Today has been a big day.”

She continued: “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”

In November, Kevin also officially filed for divorce from Franke, and called her actions to their children ‘horrific and inhumane’.

Franke and Hildebrandt are charged with six counts of child abuse

Just one week after their arrests, the pair were charged with six counts of felony child abuse.

YouTube banned Franke, deleting both 8 Passengers and ConneXions channels and blocking her from the social media platform.

Franke blames the abuse on Hildebrandt

Her attorneys released a statement that said: “Initially, Ms. Franke believed that Jodi Hildebrandt had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement. Ms. Hildebrandt took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous,” according to Fox13.

It blamed Hildebrandt solely for isolating Franke from her family completely, distorting her morality.

Franke pleads guilty

Just three days after the statement was released, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. A court had heard how she had tried to convince her youngest children they were ‘evil and possessed’.

Franke and Hildebrandt are sentenced to prison for child abuse

On 20 February 2024, Franke and Hildebrandt were convicted and given four separate prison sentences for one to 15 years, with the length of each sentence decided by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

During sentencing Franke apologised to her children and said she would ‘never stop crying for hurting their tender souls’.

She said: “My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly.

“I took from you all that was soft and safe and good.”

The two women will not serve more than 30 years in a Federal Penitentiary because of a Utah law about consecutive sentences.

It turns out it’s just wishful thinking though, as the trailer was revealed to be a fan-made one.

Many fans were tricked by the AI-crafted fake, with viewers sharing their frustration that it wasn’t the real deal.

The fake trailer had clocked up nearly two and a half million views at the time of writing, with a few eagled eyed fans in the comment section noticing that footage from another film had been sneaked in.

“1:26 is a clip from iRobot where he gets his car flipped by the robots. Nice sneak!” said one, while another noticed: “The parts with Michael B Jordan is from the movie Without Remorse.”

“I really thought this was a legit trailer for a second,” said one, as another confessed: “They nearly got me, lol.”

Not all hope is lost though for fans of the 2007 smash hit, as there are still strong signs a sequel could be coming.

There have been rumours swirling since 2022 that a follow up was coming to the original, which saw Smith wandering around a post-apocalyptic New York City with his beloved dog.

The first film earned a whopping $585.4 million against a budget of $150 million, so it could clearly be a money spinner judging by the interest in the fake trailer.

Spoiler alert, the only issue is Smith’s character Dr Robert Neville died at the end of the first film, with many fans hoping there’s an alternate ending available which meant we would see him return for a second chance.

Akiva Goldsman is reportedly on board as the writer, with original director Francis Lawrence rumoured to be returning.

The inclusion of Michael B Jordan in the fake trailer didn’t come from nothing either, as he’s set to star in an as-yet-unconfirmed role.

He opened up about his desire to work with the Men In Black star in the past, saying Will Smith is “somebody that I’ve looked up to for a really long time, [so] to be able to work with Will is something I’m really looking forward to. I’m really excited.”

The alternate ending theory gained traction after Will Smith said in 2023: “We’re going with the mythology of the DVD version where my character lives and I can’t tell you anymore.”

Writer Goldsman added: “We trace back to the original [Richard] Matheson book, and the alternate ending as opposed to the released ending in the original film.

“What Matheson was talking about was that man’s time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end.”

“That’s a really interesting thing we’re going to get to explore. There will be a little more fidelity to the original text.”

Essentially, it seems they realised they made a mistake killing him off and are going to ignore that fact and rewrite it.

In May 2024, Smith said he had a productive meeting with Jordan: “We had a couple weeks together about a month ago. I think it’s looking good. [We have some] really solid ideas… I think we’re going to make it on screen together. That dude is the truth, so I would love to do that.”

Intimate scenes in films have always seemed quite tricky to shoot but nowadays, numerous measures are put in place to make it as straightforward as possible.

But this doesn’t stop the questions from flowing in from movie viewers.

In all fairness, with the likes of Nicole Kidman admitting that she ‘didn’t want to orgasm anymore’ on the set of Babygirl, and the numerous unsimulated sex scenes in the industry, it’s only natural that people want to learn more about on-set rules.

Now, an intimacy coordinator has taken to social media to reveal how these difficult scenes are shot, with the actors’ comfort in mind.

Jessica Steinrock, PhD, better known on TikTok as @intimacycoordinator, posted a video captioned ‘One of my most asked questions,’ all around what you should do if the most awkward thing happens during a spicy scene.

“[It] could mean an erection in the penis, but it can also mean increased blood flow to the vulva or wetness,” the intimacy coordinator explained.

She added: “Vascular reactions are one of the reasons we spend so much time talking about barriers and modesty garments,” showing a couple of garments that would be used on set to cover their parts.

Explaining that different garments would work for different scenes, she went on to clarify how this worked exactly.

“Your scene partner is going to have a modesty garment that has a barrier inside, this barrier is designed to prevent physical sensation for both you and your scene partner,” the film specialist said.

This also means that your potential ‘vascular reaction’ would be padded, stopping your scene partner from feeling it, and vice versa.

It’s placed there for a reason, after all.

She concluded by explaining: “Then, if it’s needed, either one of you are allowed to ask for a break at any point, no questions asked, so if things are going as planned, then no one ever needs to know if a vascular reaction has occurred on set.”

So somehow, there’s an element of privacy within what might be one of the scariest scenes to shoot in the industry.

Faking the deed is daunting enough, but faking it while having cameras, lighting and crew pointed at you?

It’s not what you’d call romantic, so fair play to the actors that do a convincing enough job of it.

The family of a woman who was found dead in her flat after a number of years has called out social services for their lack of support for a ‘vulnerable person’.

Laura Winham was found ‘mummified and almost skeletal’ in her Surrey flat on 24 May, 2021, after her family asked police to carry out a welfare check.

The 41-year-old was said to have been ‘left to fend for herself’, and detailed in diary entries that she was ‘starving’ and ‘dreaming’ about food.

An inquest at Surrey Coroner’s Court has ruled that her cause of death was ‘unascertained’, and though it was believed that she was dead in her flat for three years, it was deemed impossible to pinpoint a time of death – though a calendar in her flat had dates crossed off until 1 November, 2017.

Today (25 February), coroner Karen Henderson highlighted that there were ‘lost opportunities’ for organisations to stop her death, such as Woking Borough Council, its former contractor, New Vision Homes, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and Surrey County Council’s adult social care team.

A police referral in October 2017 resulted in the council’s adult social care team writing to Winham, but did not visit her property.

Henderson did clarify that it wasn’t possible to conclude that the ‘lost opportunities materially contributed’ to the Brit’s death.

The family’s solicitor, Iftikhar Manzoor, read out a joint statement, saying: “When Laura was referred to adult social care in October 2017, as the police raised concerns as to her having little food or money and being without a network of friends or family, all that happened was a letter that was sent and that was a huge opportunity missed to assess Laura’s health and to take action.

“Laura was clearly a person potentially at risk but she wasn’t deemed worthy of visiting. She was left to fend herself,” they claimed.

The solicitor added: “Even her own diary entries illustrate she was unable to cope. Had adult social care visited Laura’s home within a few days of the referral in October 2017 then Laura would be alive.”

Adding that her death was ‘absolutely devastating for her family, the statement continued: “Her family did everything in their power to support her as she battled her mental health struggles until it became apparent that she may harm herself unless they backed away.

“They believed Laura would be in the best possible hands when handing her into the care of professionals – people with much more knowledge and understanding of supporting those with serious mental health issues.”

The statement said that this ‘was not the case’, and that ‘the safeguarding review made it clear that Laura was never failed by her family.’

Her family had last seen her in person back in 2009, with contact on social media halting in 2014 after she sent a message asking for ‘minimum/no contact’, due to her mental health difficulties.

They claim that they did the right thing in giving her space and not being in contact with her, but still drove past her flat to check that her car was still outside.

The executive director of adults, wellbeing and health partnerships at Surrey County Council, Claire Edgar, issued an apology as Laura didn’t get ‘the support she needed’, calling the death a ‘terribly sad case.

“I know that the service has worked hard to act on learning from this case. Since joining the council last year, my focus has been on making sure that the significant improvements the service has made in recent years are maintained and built upon.” she said.

Henderson also claimed that Woking Borough Council and New Vision Homes should have flagged her as vulnerable, so that she could have got further assistance, while adding that the DWP should have been ‘more proactive’ after her

Disability Living Allowance benefit was stopped.

The creator of the Sarco pod, often referred to as the ‘suicide pod’, has gone into more detail about how it works.

The pod was created by Dr Philip Nitschke with the aim to provide a ‘peaceful, reliable, and drug-free’ death in 10 minutes.

However, it’s not been without it’s fair share of controversy, especially after it was put to use last year.

On 23 September, the pod was used for the first time by a 64-year-old American woman in Switzerland, with the doctor who oversaw the procedure being taken into police custody by the Swiss Federal Police.

According to Dr Florian Willett, the woman had a ‘fast, peaceful and dignified’ death using the device, with Nitschke previously

The pod is designed to fill up with nitrogen gas, decreasing the oxygen levels and knocking the person inside unconscious in under one minute before they pass away after 10 minutes, with Nitschke previously explaining on the How It Ticks podcast in December last year about the process a bit more in depth.

Host Mike Connors told Philip that he was ‘surprised’ to hear it was a ‘painless’ way to do it, asking: “So there’s no struggle from the body, gasping for oxygen?”

Nitschke replied: “No, you need to have a very sudden drop in oxygen.”

He continued to say that when someone gets into the pod and presses the button, they are ‘filling the lungs up with zero oxygen’, with a ‘precipitous drop in the level of oxygen in the blood coming up from your heart, past your lungs, to your brain’.

“That drops off precipitously, so that the blood gets to your brain with no oxygen. Your brain immediately conserves what little oxygen it’s got, and it does that quickly by you losing consciousness.” he said.

He said it is fast acting and ‘within two breaths’ the person in the pod loses consciousness and faints.

The person in the pod is then left in a ‘zero oxygen environment, breathing easily, just with no oxygen’, which Nitschke claimed ‘is not the same sort of death you get when you obstruct the breathing… those are horrible deaths’.

“With this you breathe easily, but there’s no oxygen, so it’s hypoxia, you’re unconscious. Then step by step, different essential activities controlled by your brain are switched down,” he went on to say.

He said it takes around 5 to 10 minutes for the heart to stop in that zero oxygen environment, with the person in the pod ‘unconscious for the vast majority of it’.

Nitschke said that with a lack of oxygen, ‘some muscle contractions take place’, however, he insists these are normal and any witnesses shouldn’t worry if the person is ‘having a horrible time and being tortured to death’.

While the pod promises a quick death, the inventor did issue a warning to those who wish to use it, saying: “Once the button is pressed, there is no way back.”

A tech expert with supposed ties to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has revealed the staggering amount of cash she thinks is being wasted each year.

DOGE is headed by Elon Musk and was founded by the Trump administration when Donald Trump returned to office last month.

As the head of the newly-created department, Musk has been tasked with drastically slashing federal spending.

In the few weeks it has been up and running, DOGE claims to have saved $65 billion (as of February 24).

It’s believed that the agency wants to make a whopping $1 trillion in savings.

The sum comes from ‘a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings’, its website states.

While this figure suggests that $65 billion worth of taxpayer money was being wasted, a tech expert has claimed the real number could be as much as $100 billion.

The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, goes by ‘DataRepublican’ on social media and has continuous interactions with Musk on Twitter.

She recently sat down with NewsNation to speak about the money supposedly being wasted.

When asked about the alleged amount of ‘wasted’ or potentially ‘stolen’ federal money and an estimated figure, she told journalist Brian Entin: “If I had to guess, I would say it is over $100 billion. But what is more important is what they are doing with that money.”

The data scientist went on: “The numbers don’t lie. And look, they don’t always say what I want to hear. But they do tell me the truth.”

Going on to discuss her alleged ties to DOGE and Musk, ‘DataRepublican’ explained that she does not ‘communicate directly with Elon’, but the Tesla CEO ‘supports [her] work’.

“I have communicated with some people who are involved with DOGE,” she continued to share. “And I don’t want to say much more than that, but I have a working relationship.”

Musk is said to have encouraged people to follow ‘DataRepublican’ on Twitter, where she currently boasts over 400,000 followers.

As to how Musk found her online, the woman remains unsure.

“Honestly, I don’t know, you’d have to ask him,” she said when asked.

While she doesn’t know how he came to find out about her work, she’s ‘grateful’ that he did.