Bad Nanny (2025) - Season 1 Episode 2 -The Net Closes in
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00:00I was so glad she arrived.
00:02This girl was going to help us.
00:04She was Mary Poppins.
00:09She's bubbly, she's lively,
00:11she's full of ideas, she's bright.
00:13The girls thought she was amazing,
00:15the girls thought she was full of fun.
00:19Her stories were fantastical.
00:21We were fascinated by them.
00:23Her stories were so far-fetched that you couldn't make it up.
00:26The minute her mouth was moving,
00:28she was lying.
00:32Well, from Claudia Bronman, Lucy Fitzwilliams,
00:34to Carrie Jade Williams,
00:36these are just some of the different identities
00:38taken by just one person, Samantha Cooks.
00:41Serial fraudster, Samantha Cooks.
00:43These are the names that she's been using around the country.
00:46Sadie Harris.
00:47Carrie Jade Williams.
00:49Lucy Fitzwilliams.
00:50Lucy Hart.
00:51Lucy Williamson.
00:52Ellen Harris.
00:53Everything that she said,
00:55everything that she did was a lie.
00:57throughout.
00:59Where is the real Carrie Jade?
01:01Who is she?
01:02She's gone from tone to tone.
01:04A pure con artist.
01:06I was really scared for my friends and their children.
01:11I slept with a hatchet beside my bed.
01:13We're wrapped up in some serious thing,
01:16and I don't know how far this has gone.
01:19Who have we had looking after our children?
01:21People sometimes say like,
01:35where did these characters or voices come from?
01:37I don't know.
01:38They just sort of appear,
01:40appear.
01:41And an idea will appear.
01:43And yeah,
01:44then I plan it all out.
01:46And then I just work.
01:47I always work backwards.
01:49But like, you felt so guilty for a long, long time for introducing her to anybody, didn't you?
02:18Oh yeah.
02:19I still do a bit.
02:22She took advantage of people's trust,
02:25and their emotions.
02:26And their vulnerability.
02:27And their vulnerability.
02:28She finds your weak point,
02:31and your weak point is always going to be your children.
02:34Samantha walked into my life as Lucy Fitzwilliams.
02:52She's a very endearing kind of personality.
02:55She was very positive.
02:57Very well-read.
02:58I was cutting her hair,
03:00and she told me she was an evangelical Christian.
03:03She talked about her fiancΓ©, a pastor.
03:07She had experience with autistic kids and kids with behavioural issues.
03:13And in my job as a hairdresser, you'll meet so many parents that are so looking for help with their kids,
03:20especially special needs kids,
03:22who are waiting for HSE appointments,
03:25and waiting for psychologist reports,
03:28and waiting for reports and reports and reports.
03:30People are nearly on their knees asking for help,
03:33and it's not really there.
03:36So, one by one, I introduced her to different people.
03:40I brought her in to help people.
03:44My friends Hillary needed a bit of help with Rhys.
03:48Introducing the Junior Bake Off.
03:55Junior Bake Off.
03:56Come on, stop off.
03:57No, sorry.
03:59Open.
04:00Yeah.
04:01Whoa.
04:02Right.
04:03Beautiful.
04:04Lucy came along to me at a time when I needed her.
04:09She came along at a time when I was desperate.
04:11Crap.
04:12Crap.
04:13What?
04:14This is hard work.
04:15It is hard work.
04:16It's very hard work.
04:17Bacon is hard work.
04:19Rhys was born in 2011,
04:21and the autism and the disability start kind of showing at the age of two.
04:29We couldn't get the services,
04:31and they couldn't give us a time when they were going to provide them to us.
04:34He needed occupational therapy immediately.
04:38He was non-verbal at that time.
04:40So, I was on a waiting list.
04:43I was.
04:44That waiting list wasn't happening.
04:49There was no end in sight.
04:51We were getting pushed from pillar to post.
04:54And I didn't understand why the HSE didn't seem to be urgent.
04:57But it was urgent in my family.
04:59One weekend, Rhys had the meltdown of all meltdowns.
05:05He couldn't cope, and I couldn't cope with his behaviour.
05:08He was hurting himself.
05:11He was hurting me.
05:13He was hurting the family.
05:15And he, he was hurting her at the top.
05:21I rang Lorraine.
05:22And I said, Lorraine, I need your help.
05:24I kept saying to Hillary, please, please get this girl in.
05:26Lucy was going to be able to help me.
05:28She was going to provide the services that the HSE wasn't providing for me.
05:34She was a trained occupational therapist.
05:37I need her.
05:38I need her help.
05:39I need her now.
05:40So, I rang Lucy.
05:42And Lucy said, hi, Hillary, I've been waiting for you.
05:46I was like, oh, my God, Lucy, you know who I am.
05:49And she goes, yes, Lorraine has told me lots about you.
05:51I've been waiting for your phone call for a long, long time.
05:54Finally, you've rang me.
05:56By that one phone call, I was hooked on her immediately.
06:00Oh, lovely.
06:03Put it in the oven.
06:04Oh, I can't do it.
06:05You can do it.
06:06You're a big boy.
06:07Big boy.
06:08Oh, good job.
06:09OK, good job.
06:11As the weeks went on and as we developed a friendship,
06:15she then hit me with, oh, by the way, I'm opening up a women's refuge.
06:21Really?
06:22A women's refuge?
06:23That's close to my heart.
06:25Because many, many a time I ended up in a women's refuge as a child.
06:29I thought she was just amazing.
06:31Suddenly every day you were doing something for her.
06:34Then we introduced her to Lyn as well.
06:36Straight away, I was like, what can I do?
06:39How can I help?
06:40So Lucy on a Monday would ring me and she'd say, I need a double boogie.
06:43I'm after getting a family with a set of twins.
06:45I was like, oh, well, you know, I might have a couple of double sets.
06:50Sanitary product.
06:5220 tins of tomatoes.
06:54Food.
06:55Hampers.
06:56Baby food.
06:57Baby clothes.
06:58Leftover Christmas presents.
06:59Nappies.
07:00Bottles of water.
07:01Clothes.
07:02Round about size 10, maybe 12.
07:04I gave her cash as well.
07:05I gave her envelopes of cash.
07:07I had no idea that this refuge existed or where it was.
07:12Because you're not supposed to tell people and that's a safety thing.
07:16So they are usually hidden away.
07:18So no, I never questioned that.
07:21I believed everything that she said.
07:25Her tales.
07:26Huh.
07:27Yeah.
07:28She told me that she was getting married to the pastor of the Eva Angelic Church.
07:34They were having their wedding in the Shelburne Hotel.
07:37I thought, oh, that's a bit posh.
07:40So she told me that it was going to be Star Wars, the team.
07:45I was like, sorry.
07:47You're going to have Darth Vader walking through the corridor.
07:53She goes, yeah.
07:54I was like, wow, that's a bit bizarre.
07:57And who's doing the ceremony?
08:00Princess Leia.
08:01I thought, wow, that's weird.
08:04And then she divulged that she was an heiress.
08:08Her mum had passed away leaving the company 3M behind.
08:173M is the crowd that do sellotapes and sticky tapes and duct tape.
08:22Like, international.
08:23Everybody has it in their house.
08:25Multi, multi-million.
08:27So money wasn't an issue, you know?
08:30And she would say, I'm not here about money.
08:33It's not about that.
08:38You holding on tight, Dolly?
08:41OK.
08:43Now.
08:44Lucy claimed she was a play therapist and an art therapist,
08:48a paediatric art therapist.
08:51Your BiPAP is heavy on the back, isn't it?
08:55Good girl.
08:57I wasn't in a great place when she did what she did.
09:02Good girl.
09:03Feel better?
09:04Big deep breaths, OK?
09:06Big deep breaths.
09:07In 2013, my little girl Daisy arrived.
09:12Daisy's primary condition was called Rett Syndrome.
09:16In layman's terms, it's a combination of Parkinson's, epilepsy, autism and cerebral palsy.
09:24I had another child, Ellie.
09:26Now where could she be?
09:29Could she be?
09:31What if I get?
09:32Not long after I became a single mum to Ellie and Daisy.
09:43I was trying to get my head around the idea that I had a little girl that wasn't going to be with me forever.
09:49Ellie got the raw deal in it because Daisy needed me physically.
09:55And Ellie needed me emotionally.
09:58And my head was always somewhere else.
10:02My head was in keeping my child alive.
10:06Fighting the system.
10:08It's impossible at times.
10:14And it leaves you just open.
10:17Really open.
10:18She would come twice a week.
10:26She gave Ellie the one-on-one that she didn't get with me.
10:31It was definitely a bond of trust.
10:34Ellie was trusting her with her secrets and her worries.
10:38I don't think anybody, when they meet her, know what's really underneath that skin.
10:43Lucy was coming to me every second week.
10:58I'd go and pick her up.
11:00I'd bring her into the house.
11:02And she'd sit down and we'd have a little chat.
11:04And I was expecting the little chat to be only five minutes long.
11:07And the little chat went on to an hour, an hour and a half, two hours.
11:12She'd talk about anything but talking about Rhys.
11:15She'd talk about the pastor.
11:17She'd talk about the wedding.
11:19Then she'd say, oh, what are we having for lunch?
11:22And she seemed more interested in what we were having for lunch
11:25than actually doing anything with Rhys.
11:28But I had nowhere else to turn.
11:31I had nobody else to help me.
11:37Show me how fast you can go.
11:38Ready?
11:39All right, I'll time you.
11:40I'll time you.
11:41Go, go, go, go, go.
11:44I didn't know enough about occupational therapy to know that this is wrong.
11:50We got less and less about the occupational therapy that we were supposed to be doing,
11:54and more about this women's refuge.
11:56By April, there was nothing but Lucy.
11:59She consumed our lives.
12:01By June, she told me about Lapland.
12:04Myself and a lot of my friends would be very similar people.
12:12Still children in an adult's body were trapped.
12:16One of my friends had said, oh, she's doing this trip to Lapland and, you know, it's to do with the women's refuge, but there's extra places.
12:25I was so excited for Lapland.
12:28I was so excited for Lapland.
12:30Lucy provided me with an itinerary.
12:32A reindeer ride, snowmobiling, the dog sleigh, a full itinerary.
12:38I said to Lynne, Lynne, I think we can get you on that plane to Lapland.
12:47Oh, my God, do you want to go to Lapland?
12:49Ellie was so into Santa at this stage.
12:52She literally had herself togged out from head to toe, everything.
12:56The snow socks, she had the hat, she had the big gloves.
13:01All we had to do was give her a deposit.
13:05Initially, it was a deposit of coming up to $400.
13:09I had given her $1,500.
13:12Each one of us had involved other people, and each one of us who had involved other people were to collect that money for Lucy.
13:19And every week she talked to me about Lapland and how many seats there was.
13:23She's got five seats, two seats, three seats.
13:26And when I was talking to Lorraine, she'd say,
13:29Oh, yeah, I sold three seats, five seats, two seats earlier on to other people who need those seats.
13:35And I said, Hang on a minute.
13:37I sold two seats, three seats, five seats today for somebody else.
13:42And she'd go, Oh, maybe she had more.
13:44I don't know. How many seats are on an airplane?
13:47So we started Googling how many seats were on airplanes.
13:50But by the sounds of it, and the amount of people that we were after involving,
13:54we had personally sold at least five airplanes.
13:58Yeah. Yeah.
14:00I was collecting deposits off my friends, and Lorraine was collecting deposits, and Lynne was collecting deposits.
14:07Now, one family, they were thrown over maybe 15 or 20 grand or something.
14:12It was all plenty of them going.
14:15I suppose thinking about it, we should have smelled a rat.
14:21Samantha wanted me to sign a form to bring Ellie into another country without me being there.
14:28And she said, But as an organizer, I would need to do that.
14:31And she actually referred to when the kids go on their school trips, that the parents have to give the letter.
14:38And I was kind of going, OK, OK.
14:41One day, Lucy was in my house, chatting away at the table.
14:47I had my back to her.
14:49The beautiful voice changed.
14:52It was like, you know, a mask dropped.
14:56And this voice came from nowhere that my friends' kids, that they didn't deserve them.
15:05That she would do a much better job.
15:09That she wanted to have them.
15:11It was like, I will have them.
15:14It was something not right.
15:16I had involved another friend, and she was going to give Lucy a cheque.
15:21And it just so happened that she was an accountant.
15:24She wanted Lucy's charity number for the Women's Refuge.
15:28And I had my friend ringing me saying, I can't get in touch with Lucy.
15:33I'm supposed to be meeting Lucy to give her over this cheque.
15:37She still hasn't given me the charity number for the Women's Refuge.
15:41It's really strange.
15:43There's something going on.
15:44I don't know what it is.
15:47But there's something going on.
15:49All of a sudden, Lucy rang.
15:51Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, quick, quick, quick, quick.
15:53You need to help.
15:54I'm in the hospital.
15:55She said, I collapsed in the middle of Eason's.
15:58I've been brought in.
16:00I don't like hospitals.
16:01You need to come and get me.
16:03I said, I'm on the way.
16:06Into the receptionist.
16:08I'm here to pick up Lucy Fitzwilliams.
16:11Lucy Fitzwilliams, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy.
16:15No.
16:16Lucy.
16:17No.
16:18Lucy.
16:19No.
16:20Lucy.
16:21No.
16:22She collapsed in the middle of Eason's in Dunleary.
16:24She brought in by an ambulance.
16:25She goes, oh, Samantha.
16:26She goes, a cubicle tree.
16:27And I went, sorry?
16:28Pull back the curtain expecting to see some random girl sitting there.
16:31And instead, Lucy's sitting on the bed with heart monitors on.
16:34And I went, Lucy.
16:35She says, Hillary.
16:36I said, there's a girl.
16:37The girl on reception called you a different name.
16:38And she looked at me.
16:39She goes, oh, my God.
16:40Get me out of here.
16:41Get me out of here.
16:42Quick, quick, quick.
16:43I have to go.
16:44I have to go.
16:45I have to go.
16:46I have to go.
16:47I have to go.
16:48I have to go.
16:49The minute we walked out of the hospital, her personality had changed.
16:52She was back to the Lucy that I knew.
16:54Oh, such a beautiful evening out, isn't it, Hillary?
16:56What the hell is going on here?
16:58Who is Samantha?
17:00Who is she?
17:21I couldn't find her on social media.
17:24There was no Lucy Fitzwilliams.
17:25I just wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on.
17:29if what was going on. I introduced her to my friends. I was really scared for their children.
17:36I just kept digging. I went to the church where the pastor was that she was getting married to.
17:43He was already a married man, knew nothing about this, with I think a couple of kids.
17:48I was like, oh my gosh. I went to Northumberland Road which is where the Women's Refuge was and
17:54I walked up and down. I thought, shh, there's no Women's Refuge here. My heart was racing.
18:02This wasn't true. That wasn't true. Refuge wasn't true. Who is this girl? I was very scared.
18:11I went down to the Garda station. The Garda showed me a photograph. They asked me then was that her.
18:18I said, yes, most definitely. But I noticed on top of that, the written words were
18:27Samantha Cook's missing from her home in England. This person is not who she says she is.
18:35I felt sick. I googled her name. Then we knew about the court case in England with the surrogate.
18:45Oh my gosh. I really don't know what her plan is. I sent the message to Hilary that I think we should
18:56try and get Lucy to your house and we should confront her. I sent the message meant for Hilary
19:07to Lucy to Lucy. Yeah, so she got that message.
19:16And that's how she found out that I was on to her. That's how she done the runner.
19:25She was gone. We lost her. And that was the final time we heard about Lucy up in Dublin.
19:31I wasn't as scared for my own safety as I was for other people.
19:42I was just trying to find answers. She was lodging with an elderly lady in the area.
19:47I went to her house. The lovely elderly lady, she opened the door and I said, oh, where's Lucy?
19:54She's gone to Morocco? And I said, okay. I went through her stuff in the house and
20:00like found a wedding dress, double buggies, all the food, loads of stuff that we brought like toiletries
20:08and found the bank card and they confirmed who she was. Samantha Cooks, not Lucy Fitzwilliams.
20:14There was about 12 or maybe 15 burner phones, loads of writings everywhere, all over the floor,
20:24all over the walls. There was just so much. It was very upsetting.
20:35It was quite definite in a lot of the stuff that I read that I would be very,
20:42very concerned that she would do something to a child. I was convinced something was going to
20:48happen to some of the children. I just didn't have a good feeling about it at all.
20:55She wanted me to write the consent form, consent to take my child out of the country without me.
21:01When you discover that Lapland isn't happening and you question why did she want consent to take my
21:09child abroad? The massive concern with that is, is if a woman has consent, written consent from me to
21:17take my child out of the country and she's an ulterior motive, then my child's at risk of being abducted.
21:24I didn't know where she was. None of us knew where she was. We had police circling our area. Our home was on red alert. I had to have cameras put up around my home.
21:38I was scared that she would come back in the middle of the night and take my child.
21:47I slept with a hatchet beside my bed.
21:52The fact that I introduced her to my friends.
21:56You do feel guilty. You do feel guilty.
22:01Sorry.
22:09Never heard from Lucy again. No more phone calls. No more Lapland. We'd just been scammed.
22:27We lived in fear for a very long time.
22:30It was just in the back of our minds the whole time. You know, if we hadn't known where she was,
22:38who she was with, we could have actually moved on.
22:43Lorraine rang me one day. Hillary, she's on TikTok. She's on TikTok. What do you mean she's on TikTok?
22:50Something's after happening on TikTok and Lucy's back.
22:53So this here is Samantha Cook's. I don't know if she's got Huntington's disease and I don't know if
23:01this happened to her, but what I do know is that I've had a lot of people messaging me.
23:05I honestly do not know what's going on.
23:07Quick Samantha Cook's rundown for anyone who doesn't know the story. She's on TikTok posing as a
23:15lady called Carrie Jade Williams. Now as Carrie Jade Williams, she was saying that she was disabled with
23:21Huntington's disease. What is going on? This woman claimed that she was being sued for Β£450,000
23:30pounds by a couple who had stayed at her Airbnb and had taken offence to disability aids in her home.
23:39This is Samantha Cook's. Lucy Fitzwilliams. That's her. Oh my gosh.
23:45She's really good at what she does. Scams and fraud and conning. How is this possible?
23:53Her account went viral, like fully viral. And then she started selling sensory products. So then she
23:58did a scan of like that she could 3D print sensory rooms. Now obviously she went very viral. So people
24:04recognized her. People were saying, well, actually I knew her by Lucy Hart. I knew her as Samantha Cook.
24:11What is she act like? Eventually she comes off social media because obviously there's a massive
24:18backlash against her. She's a very dangerous woman and we need to keep spreading the word. We need
24:22to keep talking about her. So she's got nowhere to hide. Lucy Fitzwilliams, aka Carrie Jade Williams,
24:29aka Samantha Cook. This was a scam on the highest scale that I've ever seen.
24:37Why wasn't anybody doing more to try and get this woman? I was so angry. When the news came that
24:46Samantha had turned herself into Carrie Jade and diagnosed herself with Huntington's disease,
24:54it just stuck in my throat. Obviously, Daisy was born with a life limiting illness.
25:02How dare she? How dare she use that to gain people's trust? I was posting my own videos on TikTok.
25:12Keep a look out for this face. People need to remember how dangerous she is. And remember,
25:17do not let her into your homes near your children. People were commenting, saying, oh, well,
25:25I was her neighbour. Oh, she lived with me for this amount of time. Slowly, we started to build kind of
25:32this group of people that had been affected by Samantha. We made a little WhatsApp chat.
25:40So I get onto my phone. I just need to text this girl, Chrissy. So I sent Chrissy a text.
25:47I know you don't know who I am, but I was involved with Samantha Cook. She scammed me. Please believe me.
25:55We all need to pull together on this. It's been going on for so long. It has to stop. It has to stop.
26:04She's caused so many different types of damage to so many different types of people. Other people joined
26:12the group that have been through so much. Lucy Heart. That's what we know now has. An au pair.
26:19Like a proper Mary Poppins. She turned my world upside down. Samantha offered to become a surrogate.
26:26There was no baby. Samantha, to me, was Carrie Jade Williams. We were next-door neighbours in Kenmare.
26:35I was taken back by how much she has actually done. There were thousands of messages back and forth,
26:46trying to put together the amount of destruction that she had caused.
26:54So as I was digging and trying to find out information about Samantha, one of her ex-partners
27:00came forward from years and years ago. He confirmed that she was actually from Gloucester originally.
27:06And this is where her family was based also. He is the one that kind of filled in the picture
27:10of her very early life. That's when it became something so much more.
27:30This is a part of my life that I've kept very closed.
27:36We were both 18 when I knew her. I would have been incredibly shy. I was still very immature.
27:44And I saw her as being quite a confident, intelligent, attractive person who I almost had a bit lucky to have met.
27:52I suppose it was quite intense quite quickly. By the end of the summer, we were a couple.
27:57I did meet her family. They were quite normal and welcoming. I seemed settling quite well with them.
28:06That misleading nature was already prominent in her personality at that point.
28:13From my experience, there was a lot of unnecessary lies and deception.
28:19She said that she had a problem with her hands at school and she had to wear gloves a lot.
28:23Whether it's to make her seem more interesting at that point, I don't know.
28:29This mutual friend said, oh, you can't trust a word, she says.
28:34Those small little strange incidents started to slowly build up over that period.
28:40So I do remember thinking, I'm not sure this is really going to work.
28:45I tried to end it. She'd done a test and she said she was pregnant.
28:52After that, I would be inundated with messages and calls.
28:56Is it real? Is it just made up? Is it a tactic?
29:02I think that whole being a little family thing was a real wish for her.
29:08It was something that she would have referred to during that period.
29:12The whole period is not something I look back with much pride.
29:18My mom in the pregnancy was next to zero, really.
29:24It was going to be an adoption.
29:33I found out that baby Martha had died from a local newspaper report that there had been this
29:40this death, the day that Martha was going to be taken for adoption.
29:48Those details do raise questions for me.
29:59Sam Cooks woke up between 6.30 and 7.00 hours on the 18th of November 2008
30:11and gave Martha the first feed of the day.
30:15Sam was aware that the adoption worker was arriving that morning and was looking forward to signing the adoption paperwork.
30:20The adoption paperwork was signed by Sam as between 1,200 hours and 1,400 hours Martha would normally have asleep.
30:26Sam placed Martha on her back and placed her into a V-shaped pillow.
30:32Sam lay on the bed next to Martha.
30:34Her intention was never to fall asleep.
30:36She wanted to lie next to Martha and watch her.
30:39When Sam woke up, she saw that the rectangular pillar was over Martha's face
30:43and that the V-shaped pillow was slightly wrapped around the neck of Martha.
30:48Sam pulled Martha from underneath the pillows.
30:51She was lifeless and she was blue.
30:53Sam then picked Martha up and went to run out of the bedroom.
30:58She went to open the door and found that it was locked from the inside.
31:03I'm satisfied that the appropriate verdict that I should record in relation to Martha
31:08is that she died an accidental death.
31:11Since ΠΠ΅ΠΌ
31:14λ¬Ό Into their 4 times
31:14When a eyector
31:15When a eyethank
31:17When a eye
31:18cockroach
31:20To the woman
31:22When a eye
31:22As the woman
31:24Was a heart
31:24As the woman
31:25Looking
31:26To the woman
31:27I couldn't
31:28MUSIC PLAYS
31:58She had Samantha's notes in her house.
32:03One of those notes kept mentioning Martha,
32:06and we learned that Martha had died via these notes.
32:12This one is the one that we found in the room.
32:16What is, you can still see I stand shoulder to shoulder
32:18with the coroner that I did not murder my daughter.
32:21I pray she is now at peace.
32:24That's the bit that got me.
32:25We found she had another couple of children also
32:30she doesn't have any access to.
32:36You would never put that with the Carrie Jade Williams
32:40that we got to know as a TikTok personan.
32:44Me as a parent, leaving my children in her care,
32:48if I'd have known for one second that she had children,
32:52yeah, things would have been a whole lot different.
32:55I don't even have kids.
32:56But, I mean, she never, ever mentioned that she had children.
33:01She actually told me that she had a baby called Martha
33:05and that she had died after getting some vaccinations.
33:11I had a little girl that died as an infant.
33:14Martha, yeah.
33:16So, she had a severe allergic reaction.
33:19She had her vaccinations and just had a severe allergic reaction.
33:23To think that somebody would lie about the circumstances
33:33in how their baby died
33:35it makes me feel that she has little or no empathy
33:42or care in the world.
33:45Samantha assumed various identities calling her way into people's homes.
34:10She's gone dark now and maybe that's not the best thing for anybody.
34:14It was just everywhere.
34:17It was everywhere.
34:20We had people wanting to do podcasts.
34:24I was in this little bubble with Carrie Jade
34:26where she was a writer and a storyteller
34:28and she was a sick woman.
34:30It was a documentary maker's dream
34:32and then she ghosted me.
34:34One night, I'm sitting at home and a message comes in
34:37and it's my colleague saying,
34:38is this your Carrie?
34:40And it was a picture of a woman outside a court in Britain.
34:42And sure enough, it was.
34:45Carrie Jade Williams is actually Samantha Cooks.
34:48I couldn't believe it.
34:49Because of the fact that I had been conned by her,
34:52I had a tiny sense of what it was like for the victims.
34:56So, the story that we wanted to tell then
34:59was the story of the victims.
35:00Three years ago,
35:04a young woman with a terminal degenerative brain disease
35:07reached out to us,
35:09looking for help.
35:10She wanted us to tell her story to the world.
35:14Then,
35:15Carrie Jade Williams disappeared.
35:18Before long,
35:19her story exploded online.
35:22We journey into the underworld of Samantha Cooks
35:24from RTE Documentary on One,
35:27The Real Carrie Jade,
35:29releasing weekly.
35:32We did a lot of research
35:33and all of a sudden you realise,
35:34bloody hell,
35:35this is not the person I thought I knew.
35:37And the stuff she came up with
35:38was kind of jaw-dropping.
35:40We found court documents from Fermoy.
35:42She was charged,
35:43she had pretended to be a child psychologist.
35:45I spoke to a taxi driver in Cork
35:48who drove around with her
35:49and saw her charging people
35:51for various childcare services
35:55that she was offering.
35:56She got over β¬30,000 from the Arts Council.
35:58She was just relentless.
36:02As the podcast is going on,
36:04we're maintaining curiosity about where she is.
36:07And you knew at some point
36:08she was going to pop up like guacamole
36:11with some other mad story.
36:15My name is Matt Riles.
36:42I'm the lead pastor here at the Bridge Church.
36:44And I knew Samantha Cooks as Sadie Harris.
36:48The church here in Selbridge,
36:50the Bridge Church,
36:51it would be probably more a Pentecostal type.
36:53So it's quite lively on a Sunday
36:55and people clap and sing out loud
36:57and raise their hands.
36:58Celebrity, I'm not the same.
37:01I'm not the same, I'm not the same.
37:03I'm the same, you are the same.
37:06And we kind of welcome anyone who walks in.
37:10I think it was exactly what Samantha thought
37:12she wanted.
37:14or was looking for
37:15is a place to kind of weasel in.
37:18I never trusted her.
37:20And I just always got this sense
37:23like there was something to the story
37:24we weren't being told.
37:27She presented to us this person, Sadie Harris.
37:30She had just come from America.
37:33She had been a nanny for really wealthy people.
37:36But when I asked, like, oh, who did you work for?
37:39She would say, I signed an NDA
37:41and I'm not able to discuss who that is.
37:43And she was now here in Ireland working as a nanny locally.
37:47It was true that she was working as a nanny here.
37:51And I would see her, like, walking to and from school or whatnot with the child.
37:56That was true.
37:56There was almost this Mary Poppins vibe off of her, like, too good to be true.
38:00She was doing a course on how to be a foster parent.
38:04There were so many layers to the story.
38:07It's hard to actually keep up with all the stuff she told us.
38:11Another part of her backstory was that she was adopted.
38:14Her parents were English, I believe, is what she told us.
38:17They owned a big factory in Israel.
38:21And so there's loads of money, loads of land.
38:24She had a lot of access to finances.
38:26At the time, I didn't know she wasn't who she was presenting as.
38:30So I just thought, this is really bizarre.
38:32I think she really misread who we are as a church
38:36and then came in the wrong angle.
38:39The persona that Sadie kind of gave out to the church
38:41would be this really, like, plain clothes, long skirts,
38:46extreme modest appearance.
38:49She would say to women in the church, like,
38:51I mean, I only wear skirts, and I think that's all women should wear.
38:55I'm not sure women should wear trousers.
38:58I remember I was at home, and I got this text from a friend.
39:03It was a link to a podcast.
39:08Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.
39:10I realized straight away that it was who I knew as Sadie,
39:14but this was calling her other names than Sadie.
39:18So I think Carrie was one of the names,
39:21and Samantha was maybe the real name.
39:23I understand, like, that she, one of her lies that she was telling
39:26is that she had Huntington's disease.
39:29She never said that to me, my wife,
39:32or anyone here that I've spoken to,
39:33and there were no signs that she had any type of disability
39:37or, you know, ailments or anything.
39:39Someone in the church sent a message to Sadie.
39:42I know that you're not Sadie.
39:44I know that you're Samantha.
39:46I think that was kind of the gig up for her.
39:48She fled in the night.
39:54By the time the sun came up,
39:55she was gone and had just vanished.
39:58That poor family in Salbridge,
40:07like, part of me just feels like,
40:12is it going to continue until something bad happens?
40:17The last place she ran from in Kenmare,
40:27she left this absolute treasure trove of information
40:31that basically tells the story of her conning the state.
40:35She left examples of how she tried to create these documents
40:40that would support her applications claiming disability
40:43and being paid by the Department of Social Protection.
40:47Based on the fact that she was terminally ill,
40:50she wasn't terminally ill.
40:52So she takes her driving licence permit,
40:55she takes a picture of it,
40:57and where it says her real name,
41:00she puts in her fake name,
41:02printed in little bits of paper,
41:03which you're going to say to yourself,
41:05that's not going to work, nobody's going to believe that.
41:06Except what she does then is she photocopies it.
41:10So if you're an official in the government department,
41:14you're going to look at this and say,
41:15it's valid.
41:17Another example of this is she's asked to provide a medical document.
41:20So she has this medical document with the words,
41:23history of confirmed Huntington's gene.
41:27However, if you look at the original and not the photocopy,
41:30the words are reported are rubbed out.
41:34So the specialist who wrote this didn't say she had a HD gene
41:38or Huntington's gene.
41:39They said she reported to have had Huntington's disease.
41:44This is not proof,
41:45but she has redacted it to make it look like it is proof.
41:49So all of these documents tell the story of a woman
41:52who was working full time to con the state.
41:56And she almost got away with it.
42:01A woman charged with defrauding the Department of Social Protection
42:05of almost 60,000 euro has been remanded in custody
42:08at a hearing in Tralee District Court.
42:11Samantha Cooks of no fixed abode was arrested outside Tralee Post Office
42:15in County Kerry yesterday when she was due to collect
42:19a weekly disability allowance worth 232 euro.
42:23The 36-year-old is suspected of having collected 238 payments
42:27over a four-year period.
42:32Wow.
42:33It's real.
42:35It's real.
42:35It is the 19th of February
42:46and it is sentencing day
42:49and we left Dublin at 5.30
42:52and we're half an hour away from Tralee Court
42:55and today is the big day that we've been waiting for
43:01for nearly eight years.
43:03Eight years.
43:10It's not just me and Hilary.
43:12There's a whole world of people out there
43:14who've been affected
43:14and this is for all of us today.
43:19The sentence today is in regard to welfare fraud.
43:21you know, a 60,000 euro, it's money
43:26and the reason we're here
43:28to see her being sentenced for this
43:30this symbolises all of the damage
43:33that have been done to so many of us.
43:35It's nice to just see
43:36some form of justice taking place.
43:40It is going to be a form of closure
43:42just sitting in front of her
43:44and her knowing that we're there
43:46whether she looks directly at us
43:48she'll know.
43:49She'll know.
43:50Hey guys.
43:50Let's go.
44:16All this is all the charge.
44:18Yeah, perfect.
44:19Today, Samantha Cook's past
44:26caught up with her
44:27at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee
44:29where she was sentenced
44:30for deception and theft offences.
44:33Detective Garda Ray Liston
44:35told the court
44:36Samantha Cook's convinced
44:38a respected GP
44:39to fill out a form for her
44:41saying she had already been diagnosed
44:43with Huntington's disease.
44:45Samantha Cook's has been in custody
44:47since her arrest last July.
44:50The court was told
44:51she has been engaging in education
44:53in prison,
44:55studying business,
44:56personal development,
44:58sociology
44:59and calligraphy.
45:01Judge Ronan Munro
45:03sentenced Samantha Cook's
45:05to four years in jail
45:06with the final year suspended.
45:07He said her plan
45:09was carefully orchestrated
45:11and had diverted funds
45:12from people in genuine need.
45:16Pascal Sheehy, RTE News,
45:18the Circuit Criminal Court, Tralee.
45:20She didn't look at us.
45:29She couldn't look at us.
45:30There was a fright
45:30when she'd seen us at first
45:32and she kind of was like,
45:33oh my God,
45:34and then she went torn
45:35and she'd seen the other one
45:36and the other one.
45:37It was a big shock to her.
45:39I don't think I'm going to get
45:40the closure I was expecting.
45:43That reality has hit me really hard.
45:45It's not going to change
45:47what's happened.
45:47And I had no idea
45:51how much it's all affected me
45:54and how much it changed me then
46:00and how it altered my parenting,
46:06how it altered me as a mum,
46:08how I embrace other people.
46:14Just shame on her, you know?
46:17It's gone.
46:20It's gone.
46:21It's gone.
46:22It's gone.
46:29We can't change what has happened,
46:32but I wish and I hope
46:33that this changes everything going forward.
46:37This has never been about
46:38the fraud or the monetary gain.
46:42It's about the emotional attack
46:45on people that are already vulnerable.
46:49I'm angry because
46:50she put the fear of God in us.
46:52We all thought that
46:54she was going to kidnap the kids.
46:55We lived in fear for a very long time.
46:59She will constantly scam
47:01till the day that she dies.
47:04She will probably scam
47:05the funeral director.
47:06I don't feel sorry for Samantha,
47:12but I feel sad for Samantha.
47:14She feels like she's got to be
47:15this other person
47:17who has pretend degrees
47:18and pretend diseases
47:19and pretend houses
47:20and pretend money
47:21and pretend parents.
47:22Like, nothing about her life
47:24is fully true.
47:26I don't know what it is
47:28that causes her to do this.
47:29I don't believe she will stop.
47:36I feel sorry for her
47:37because imagine what a lonely life
47:40it is to lead.
47:41Her whole entire life
47:43has been one scam
47:44after another scam.
47:46It's been one name
47:47after another name.
47:49Like, how do you even keep up with that?
47:51I wouldn't want to be
47:52in Samantha's head.
47:54She could do anything.
47:55She's that intelligent
47:56that she could do anything
47:57she wanted to do.
47:58So hopefully,
47:59after all of this,
47:59she does get the help
48:00that she needs
48:01and she does move forward
48:02with her life.
48:03She's been so many
48:04different people,
48:06you know,
48:06and so hopefully,
48:07one day,
48:07she does move forward
48:09and just be Samantha Cooks.
48:12The heroes of this story
48:13for me
48:14are the WhatsApp group
48:16of Queen detectives.
48:17If it wasn't for the women
48:18in that group,
48:19Samantha,
48:19under whatever name,
48:21would still be out there.
48:22You're still on mute there.
48:23I couldn't put the camera on.
48:25Oh, girlies are together.
48:27Hi, girls.
48:28Hi, girls.
48:30Hello.
48:31If Samantha was watching me,
48:33I would say
48:34thank you
48:35for those lovely people
48:37I've gotten to know
48:38through you.
48:41Every day,
48:42every morning,
48:43I know I have a team
48:44of people on my side,
48:46a team of individual people
48:48that have been brought together
48:50through horrific circumstances
48:52and who are the most
48:54amazing people.
48:56We don't always talk about
48:57Samantha Cooks.
48:59She's not that important anymore.
49:01We've stopped talking about her
49:03and now we talk about ourselves.
49:06She's not consumed
49:06our lives anymore.
49:09I still trust people.
49:12You're never going to meet
49:13another Samantha Cooks.
49:14We'll see you next time.
49:28Bye.