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Carly's Story

In 2006 Carly Ryan thought she had met her dream boyfriend online. His name was Brandon Kane, a 18yr old musician from Melbourne. Brandon was in fact fictitious. An internet construct, the cyberspace alter ego of Garry Francis Newman, a 50yr old predator and paedophile. Carly fell in love with the Brandon construct during 18 months of online contact and phone calls.

Garry Newman spent months masquerading as Brandon Kane to win Carly’s love. When he tried to seduce her in person pretending to be Brandon’s father “Shane”, she rejected him. Angry, Garry Newman returned to Melbourne vowing to “fix Carly up.” He used his alter ego to lure Carly to a final, fatal meeting.

In February 2007, Garry Newman convinced Carly to meet him. He took Carly to a secluded beach at Port Elliott, South Australia. There, he bashed her, pushed her face into the sand, suffocating her, he then threw her into the water to drown. She was only 15yrs old.

Within 11 days, detectives located Garry Newman in Victoria. They found him at his computer, logged in as Brandon Kane talking with a 14yr old girl in Western Australia. They arrested him, charging him with Carly's murder. In a Supreme Court trial which continued for over three months, a jury found Garry Francis Newman guilty of murder. He was sentenced on 31 March 2010. South Australian Justice Trish Kelly ordered him to serve a life behind bars with a 29yr non parole period.

Justice Kelly said “Garry Newman deserves a life behind bars for his grossly perverted plan to deceive, seduce and murder Carly.” “It was a terribly cruel thing you did to this beautiful, impressionable 15yr old child” Justice Kelly said “I say child because that’s what she was, a child that fell in love with the idea of the handsome, musically inclined and rather exotic Brandon Kane, the real man was in fact an over weight, balding, middle aged paedophile with sex and murder on his mind”

Justice Kelly said “You were sexually obsessed with Carly to the degree that when you couldn’t get your own way, you prepared to and did kill her.” Carly was a beautiful, sensitive, loving and amazing young lady with her whole life ahead of her. For Carly, her dreams, goals and future were taken away by a selfish, twisted, deviant sex predator.

Determined to help prevent harm to other innocent children and families and to help them navigate their online journey safely, Sonya incorporated The Carly Ryan Foundation (CRF) in 2010. Sonya Ryan has over 14 years of experience and knowledge. Her aim is to create awareness and educate children and parents using the internet, find gaps in child protection legislation, draft and recommended additions to policy and equip law enforcement to arrest child predators sooner enabling courts to successfully prosecute offenders. 

Ms Ryan has led efforts for over a decade in Australia to make her home country one of the toughest on online crime and harms and now an international leader in crime prevention.

Cyber pervert’s will continue to prey on kids unless we wake up to the risks of various online mediums, chat rooms and social networking sites. What happened to Carly can happen to anyone. People that groom the young online are manipulating and controlling. They know exactly how to target a child. They become the most important person in that child’s life, then use that trust to do whatever they like to their victim. The internet is part of our daily lives, it is essential that children, teens and young adults learn how to navigate the worldwide web safely.