Carly Ryan was born on 31st January 1992, in Sterling, South Australia. She lived with her mother Sonya Ryan.

In 2006, aged 14, Carly Ryan made an account on a popular networking site called Vampire Freaks. She wanted to meet people with similar interests to her. Vampire Freaks used to be a social media site, popular with people who were interested in alternative styles and music.

On the website, Carly met an 18-year-old musician named Brandon Kane from Melbourne, through mutual friends. The two chatted online for 18 months and even had phone calls with each other.

Carly’s mother Sonya did what many parents do and made sure to keep an eye on what her daughter was doing and who she was talking to online. The family computer was kept in the kitchen.

Carly and Brandon spoke on the phone often, discussing the usual things like school and music, and it wasn’t long before Carly fell in love with Brandon.

As well as talking to Brandon, Carly would also speak to his adoptive father, Shane. Carly’s mother felt there was something strange about the situation but Carly was in love with Brandon and didn’t want anything to ruin their relationship.

Then, around Carly’s 15th birthday, Shane, Brandon’s father, showed up at Carly’s house with gifts. He was wearing a shirt with a security firm logo on and showed Carly’s mother his security license, proving that he worked as a security guard and was who he said he was.

Sonya invited Shane to Carly’s birthday party. When she found out he didn’t have anywhere to stay, she offered him a room for the night. To Sonya, Shane seemed like a normal loving father, but when he was at the party he told Carly he loved her and made sexual advances towards her. Carly rejected him, apparently calling him ‘old, fat and gross.’ Sonya made Shane leave. From then she made sure to monitor her daughter’s online activity even more closely.

On 19th February 2007, Carly went to a sleepover with some friends. The next day, on 20th February 2007, Carly didn’t return home so her mother called the police to report her daughter missing. That same morning a beach walker found Carly’s body in shallow water at Horseshoe Bay in South Australia.

Carly Ryan had been beaten, suffocated and left to drown. She was only 15 years old.

It turned out that Carly hadn’t gone to her friends for a sleepover that night, she had gone to meet Brandon at the beach. But Brandon wasn’t who she thought he was. For the past 18 months, Carly had been groomed by a man called Gary Francis Newman. Newman was 50 years old and a divorced father of 3. He was also a paedophile. He spoke to multiple young girls online using over 200 aliases, including ‘Shane’ and ‘Brandon’.

Newman did have an adoptive son, and he forced him into posing as Brandon so could get close to Carly. It was Newman’s son who Carly would talk to on the phone. When Carly rejected Newman’s advances at her birthday party, he started putting his revenge plot into motion.

In 2010, Gary Newman was sentenced to life imprisonment, and would not be eligible for parole for at least 29 years. Newman’s adopted son was a minor at the time of the crime so was acquitted of all charges. It is not known how much involvement he actually had in Carly’s murder. His identity has never been made public.

After her daughter’s death, the first of its kind in Australia, Sonja Ryan set up the Carly Ryan Foundation to raise awareness of the dangers of online predators. In 2017, the Australian government introduced Carly’s Law which makes it a crime for an adult to use a carriage service to commit an act in preparation for, or planning to, cause harm to or engage in or procure sexual activity with a minor. Importantly this will include those who misrepresent their age.