Paul C. Brunson: Red Flag (2026) s01e08 Episode Script

1
I've spent most of my adult life
helping people find and keep love,
working at the forefront
of modern dating
to study how we feel about
the partners we choose.
But I know relationships have
a darker side.
And how are you doing?
Lovely to meet you.
I'm meeting survivors
of toxic relationships,
hearing their stories
and reliving pivotal moments
to help reveal the red flags
abusers try to hide.
He just made me think that he was
my only option.
I naively thought he's just
a bit insecure in himself.
I felt stuck in
that relationship for so long.
When you're in it,
you can't see it. You cannot see it.
I hid a lot of things away
because I didn't want people
to know.
A red flag is a warning sign
and by spotting a red flag
..you not only protect your loved
ones, but you protect yourself.
Mel was tricked into loving
a man secretly leading a double life.
Ray.
Everything was just falling
into place.
They said I was like
Alice in Wonderland.
She was on cloud nine.
She was just like
a giggly little girl.
This serial fraudster trapped
Mel in a web of lies
and created a love
story that wasn't real.
He fooled everyone.
So, this is the new house.
How much was the house?
It was around about 400,000.
I was totally caught up in
the moment.
There's a picture of him
kind of
down on one knee
with the engagement ring.
He said, "Let's go
and do it in Dubai."
Did you believe he loved you?
Yes.
I want to know how Ray was finally
unmasked and who he really was.
I just got this gut feeling
to go on my phone.
I thought, "That's him,
that is Ray."
She was devastated.
We just rang 999 and that was
when I
..learnt the truth.
What was the truth?
Hi. Mel, how are you doing?
Hi, pleased to meet you.
How are you doing?
I'm good, thanks.
All right, really good.
Please, please, please.
You know, this is a story that
is shocking
Mm-hm. ..to many.
And this particular person,
I think, is incredibly scary.
I feel the same. Do you?
Yeah, mm-hm.
Yeah, it's just mind-blowing.
It's a shock.
I have lots of fond
memories of me and Mel.
Her oldest son
and my youngest daughter
both went to school together
and that's how we became friends.
Then she became my hairdresser.
She loves to meet people.
Mel runs her own business
and had been single for a few years
when she started online dating.
So, you were online. You're single,
looking to mingle?
I wasn't I wouldn't say
I was looking to mingle.
It was just a curiosity.
I think it would take
quite a special man
to come into my life and change it.
So, you were not looking for
a committed relationship?
Nothing, no.
What was it then about
Ray's profile that made you
be open to chatting with him? Erm
He kind of just messaged
and his whole,
like, personality matched mine,
like, sense of humour.
So, he's the one who approached you
on the app? Yeah.
Yeah, said that he'd just moved
to Newcastle, like,
a few weeks before,
he was having a new house built,
so he was living with his sister.
His daughter was also living at the
sister's until the house was built.
What did he say he did for work?
He'd done, like,
25, 30 years of service in the Army
and was working as
a probation officer.
Who asked who out on the first date?
He asked me.
I think at first he asked us if
I wanted to go out for a drink.
I don't drink,
so I agreed to just go for a coffee.
He was kind of standing
with his back to us.
OK, OK. Now I'm even more intrigued.
Mm-hm.
So, I came out of the elevator. OK.
Ray was standing exactly where
you are now. Ah.
And I went
..because I knew it was him.
Oh, I see. And he turned around.
He turned around,
and that was the moment.
And he said,
"No-one has ever walked up behind me
"before me entire life,"
because of his army job.
Secretprivate security work.
Yes. He was so alert
to people coming up behind him.
Interesting. Mm-hm.
And that line sounds almost,
would you say? Rehearsed?
Yeah. You now have
a special connection.
Yeah. There's something
special between the two of you.
Straight away, yeah.
Very clever,
but in such the wrong way.
So then once he turned around,
where did you go from here?
Follow me. Oh, well, OK, OK.
MEL LAUGHS
So, you had already planned this is
where you were going? Yeah.
OK. Mm-hm, yeah.
Oh, wow. So, yeah
Do you know what?
This is my first time going
into Wetherspoons. Come on.
Thank you, thank you.
After you. Thank you.
So, we came in.
Ray stood at the bar,
ordered two coffees,
and then we're sat
on this table over here.
What were your hopes as
to what was going to happen next?
I just think it was kind of such
an easy chat.
He just seemed normal.
Ex-wife. Daughter.
He kept looking up these stairs.
Cos I asked him why
he was doing that.
He gave the reason of, because of
his jobs that he'd been in,
Army, private security work. Hm.
He always liked to know,
if he needed to get out OK.
..how he could get out.
At the time I just thought,
this is just a normal person
sitting in front of us Yes.
..telling us about their life.
Shall we go? All right. Let's go.
I struggle to find anything
that Mel could have seen
to indicate what was about to happen.
Well, I just wanted to tell her,
"Run. Get out of here."
That first coffee meet-up,
how did it end?
Went back down to my car,
and then a few texts started coming
through, just Immediately?
Mm-hm. Yeah.
Was I sure I didn't
want to just go back
and have a meal or stay in town?
And I was,
"No, Ray, this is
"We'd agreed two coffees,
let's just leave it there."
You have someone who's already
testing your boundaries.
That succession of boundary
testing, to me, is a red flag. Right.
But I can understand how you could
look at that and say It's not.
..it's not. We just had
a lot in common OK.
..from the beginning.
When was the next time you saw Ray?
By the time I got home,
he'd sent another message,
"When can I see you again?"
I had nothing to lose.
So, yeah, we agreed to
go to ajust a pub for a meal.
And how did that go? He said that
his daughter was using his car,
so I went and picked him up.
And I'm sorry, even on that, Mel,
when you picked him up,
did you go to the house or
did he just come out to the car?
Yeah, so there was like
an old Victorian-style house,
and I just parked outside.
Didn't see where he came from
or anything like that.
OK, so then you both
drove to the pub?
Yeah. Yeah,
so that's a picture of us together.
Oh, let me see.
I'll tell you what,
he's a friendly face.
He had, like, a really
good sense of humour.
And I'm one of these people
that I love to joke and laugh.
Finding someone
with my kind of humour's
quite a big thing for me.
Got back to my car
and he kind of leaned in for a kiss,
and I was a bit, "Mm."
Oh, wow. But he went,
"I've been dying
to do that since yesterday."
It seems like that was early
for you to kiss someone?
Yes. But no, it just felt right,
at the time.
I drove him back to his sister's,
dropped him off.
He kissed us again.
I think it was that night again,
he kind of messaged and said,
"What's your plans at the weekend?"
And I said, "At the weekend,
I chill out, I go for dog walks."
And he was like, "I'll come for
a walk with you at the weekend,
"if that's OK." And I was like,
"Yeah, yeah."
So, now this is the third
time you've seen Ray? Yeah.
We just went to a local park.
When we'd finished the walk,
he was like,
"I need to get back
because I'm on night shift
"and I need to start work
at 6pm."
So again, I took him back
to his sister's. OK.
And I would imagine
there's another kiss?
Yeah. It was kind
of progressing quickly,
kind of thought, "Well,
this is kind of going down
"the route that it possibly
should be going down."
She was on cloud nine.
I just think everything was
happening very quickly.
But she was happy.
And as long as she was happy,
I'm not going to stand in her way.
His daughter started
messaging us, kind of saying,
"I'm pleased Dad's happy.
"I'm so happy Dad's met
someone, like, really nice."
How did that make you feel?
I kind of thought it was
a bit strange
because I hadn't met her,
but it was nice to be kind
of included as part of,
like, a family, I suppose.
So, eventually she did
actually reach out to us
and say that she thought
she was pregnant.
She was like, "Dad's going to
go mental
"when I tell him I'm pregnant.
How do I tell him, Mel?"
Oh, wow. So, she told you before?
Dad, mm-hm.
..Dad? Yeah. Interesting.
I kind of stepped up
and just wanted to help her
and support her any way
that I could.
I think him being normal
and having a family,
it's kind of what I've got,
like a family, a daughter.
And that's a red flag. Yeah.
That one is mirroring, where he's
mirroring you. Yeah, uh-huh.
It's even taught in businesses.
Mm-hm.
You know, sales teams
are taught to mirror
because when we see
a mirror image of ourselves,
we feel more comfortable.
Yeah, mm-hm. Definitely.
When you first started
this conversation,
you said that you
didn't necessarily believe
that love was coming for you.
So therefore,
when love does show up for you,
you think
Go with it.
Did you feel like you were
living in a dream?
I can't say a dream
because I know what happens next.
The first few weeks with Ray,
how would you describe that?
Normal.
I can normally pick up on
things that aren't right.
Yes. His morals seemed
to match my morals.
Did you meet his mother at all?
It just never became a thing.
And then, out for a walk one day
and walking along the beach,
he said that his mum had
took really poorly
and he should go down and see her.
When Ray was telling you about his
mother, what did he say exactly?
So, he just said that he had
something really important
to tell us that
he hadn't told us before. OK.
And I was like,
"What on earth?" Right.
And he just saidhe went,
"My mum's got cancer."
He said she's had it
for a long time.
It's breast cancer.
She's refused treatment
and it's spread,
and now she's terminally ill.
So then after he tells you,
what happens? So,
he basically said that,
"I might have to go and see her.
"I haven't seen her
for a long time."
And I was like,
"Ray, you need to go
"because this kind of illness,
every minute's important." Yes.
So, did you feel even closer to him?
Just kind of a wee bit,
like, understanding
of what he was going through.
What I would imagine too is that
you would do anything
for him. Uh-huh, yeah.
The day after he'd gone down,
she had sadly died
through the night.
It was sad.
Daughter was messaging going,
"I don't know how to
cope with death, Mel.
"I've never experienced
this before."
What was his disposition like
the first time you saw him
after his mother passed?
He seemed sad,
but seemed quite composed by it.
With his mother passing,
does he get any inheritance?
Yeah, so he said that he was getting
some inheritance money.
He didn't want the house that
he was having built any more.
He said it was a bachelor pad.
Obviously the daughter's pregnant,
she's 17.
He said,
"I think I need to cancel the house,
"and I think we should
maybe look for a house"
"that's big enough for everyone."
This is quick.
This is To me, this is
moving quick because this is Yeah.
We're not talking months here,
we're talking weeks. Mm-hm.
How did you take that?
I take it as kind of a man that's
not scared of commitment.
It became I'm going to go
and live in this new house with him.
We scoured houses,
we went to show homes, like,
and then eventually we found
the house that was suitable.
So, this is the new house.
How much was the house?
I think it was around
about 400,000. OK.
Got all the legal paperwork,
the brochures.
So, did you feel like you both
selected this together
or this was more Ray, or more you?
Probably more me.
Ray was just, "Whatever you want,
princess, you can have."
So, this is what the kitchen
was going to look like? Yeah,
this was the actual design
and that was the kitchen
that we chose.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
It's like the sales team said,
"There's an initial
£99 reservation fee,"
and I said, I remember,
"I'm paying that £99."
So were you thinking, "You know what,
"I'm going to still contribute
towards the house?" Oh, definitely.
Yeah. Well, like, I mean,
I talked about I'll pay the bills,
like the gas and the electric.
Take me back to the first time
that you walked in, you saw it.
The layout was perfect.
Just the right house. I think
we actually stood at the door
and took a photograph,
yeah, it was
..one of those moments.
How do you feel being here now?
It's just the same as all
the other locations.
They're not real.
I feel incredibly sad.
This moment with the home,
her life begins to feel so certain.
This is a neighbourhood that looks
like this is where dreams begin.
But this is where Mel's
nightmare started.
So within days, I was
Solicitor's letters came through.
He said, obviously,
he was living at his sister's,
could he use my address
to have them delivered?
It was just easier.
When those letters came, did it
have his name and your name?
It had his name and my name
because I was going to be
in the house
and he said if ever anything
happened to him,
then the house would
automatically become mine.
So you're feeling he's all
about commitment?
Yeah.
This is the red flag
of financial entanglement.
By including his name in
the legal documents,
he's intertwining your relationship
so that it's harder to get out. Yeah.
So this is still
early February? Yeah.
Has his mother's funeral
taken place yet?
No. So, it was actually going to be
the funeral on Valentine's Day.
He got up in the morning
and he went off and took a train.
So
..just to unpack,
this is your partner's
mother's funeral?
Yeah.
I feel as if that's a place that
you would be asked to come.
It was just close family.
So I said,
"There's absolutely no way
"am I coming to this funeral, Ray.
"It's not my place.
I'm not family."
Ray goes off to the funeral.
Yeah. It's Valentine's Day.
I picked him up from
the train station afterwards.
He'd agreed that even though it
was his mum's funeral,
he still wanted a special day.
So, he'd booked a hotel,
for us to go off and
have a Valentine's Day still.
So, yeah, that was how the room
was set up with Oh, I see.
..the love hearts
and the petals, the champagne.
We used the spa.
It was lovely. It was lovely.
This place looks beautiful.
And also, quite honestly,
it feels high-end.
Oh, wow, look at this, Mel!
We basically had the room
just up above the front door.
Oh, OK.
That'sit's probably
the biggest room here.
How did you feel knowing that
he had just come from
his mother's funeral,
but he spent the time
and the money to set this up for you?
Yeah, I would say I felt
quite special,
that my Valentine's Day
was more important than
anything that day to him.
So, I had a nice meal.
Spoke about his mum
and some inheritance money,
and how he was going to
help his dad sort out the finances,
and then just went up to bed.
The following morning,
I woke up, Ray was already awake.
And it was as if the mood had
just shifted in the room. Mm.
And he was very quiet and
I just said to him, "Ray, what?
"What's wrong?" And he went,
"Nothing, princess."
And then he eventually went,
"I've brought you all the way
here for such a special day."
And he went, "In the middle
of your sleep last night,
"you said your ex's name."
And I was, "What?"
Like, I've never ever,
as far as I'm aware,
spoke in my sleep before.
It's not a thing that I do, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, that's red flag,
an emotional manipulation.
If you are feeling bad for him,
you're going to have to work harder
to do as he wants and needs.
Yeah, I do realise now that this can
just happen to anyone.
Up until this point in
their relationship,
Ray's behaviour, his manipulative
moments were undetectable.
But here is where that changes.
Who actually is Ray
and what is he up to?
After a six-week whirlwind romance,
serial fraudster Ray
has just accused Mel
of saying her ex's name in her sleep.
So then by the next day,
you're back at home.
Back in Newcastle. He then
He suggested we go off and just
have a weekend somewhere.
And why did he book another night?
Because you mentioned?
I think it was just, "Valentine's
Day wasn't what I expected,
"so we'll do it again.
"We'll have a rerun."
Red flag.
That's that emotional
manipulation kicking in again. Mm-hm.
Showing you that he can control,
that you go up and down,
and he played that
particular card very well.
He always made us feel special,
so, yeah,
we put our cases in the car
and set off to Manchester now.
Look at that.
So, we had been invited to
a charity event.
Ray said it was his friend
that was organising it.
Ray said, "They're my
people at this event,"
people from his Army job,
and probation staff
that he worked with.
This is now the first opportunity
you have to meet any
of his friends. Yeah.
And I felt a bit nervous
because I was going to be in
a room full of
..Ray's people.
People were just coming up
to him, hugging him.
"Lovely to see you, mate.
I'm so happy for you."
I felt like he was some
kind of celebrity.
What were they
congratulating him for?
He said his Army job,
like he'd saved people's lives.
I didn't really
think anything of it.
I had a really good time.
Everything was just falling
into place, quickly.
People who saw us, saw us happy.
They said I was like
Alice in Wonderland.
How many weeks has it been?
Probably about seven weeks.
I felt looked after
and that was something
new for me to feel.
He said, "You know, when they say
something's too good to be true,
"this is too good to be true.
"But it's real and it is happening."
He was using a red flag that's not
often talked about,
but that is momentum. Mm-hm.
And he was using that momentum
to win you closer to him.
I was totally caught up in
the moment. Yes.
And then he books a lodge.
Got there, beautiful hot tub,
and then he asked us to go
and sit outside
and I could see him kind
of shuffling things around.
I saw glasses, champagne,
and then he came out
and got down on one knee
and asked us to marry him.
I said yes.
That engagement must
have been something.
Yeah, it was special.
I've got some photographs.
The things like the champagne.
There was a card saying,
"Please be my wife."
Glasses with Mr and Mrs on,
a little teddy bear.
OK. "I love you to
the moon and back."
There was just so much
thought put into it.
There's a picture of him kind of
down on one knee
with the engagement ring.
Oh, that's how he proposed.
Wow, look at that.
Did anyone comment on how quickly?
Nobody. Not one person?
No.
At times I thought,
"Is this crazy?"
But people were like, "Melanie,
you deserve happiness.
"And there's a man there
standing in front of you,
"bringing you happiness
that you deserve." Yes.
"Grab it. Run with it."
Mel's mum and dad
thought he was great.
That, you know, their
daughter had found her happiness.
She was getting married.
He was everything
they wanted her to have.
Just so happy that
he proposed to her.
She was just like
a giggly little girl.
I just was a little
bit worried for her.
Yeah, never have
I said anything to Mel about it,
because until he'd done something
to her that would hurt or upset her,
I'm not gonna
I'm not going to be that person.
I just thought
he was moving very fast
and it made me feel uneasy.
You know, in case
she got her heart broke.
Did you talk about a wedding date?
He kind of said, "Why wait?
"If we're going to do it,
let's just do it now.
"I've got a wedding planner.
Let's go and do it in Dubai."
Did you like that, the fact that
he had kind of taken control?
He would
If I ever questioned anything,
he'd be like, "Princess,
let me take care of you."
It was new to me. It was special.
We got on the plane.
Have a nice flight.
Arrive at Dubai airport.
Gets to the hotel.
Everything's going to plan.
I thought we were supposed to
go to the courts the following day,
but Ray was like, "No, no, no,
"the wedding planner's going
to the courts
"and she'll deal with all
the legal side of the paperwork.
"We just need to have,
like, a ceremony."
I actually went to the beach
and I think it
was around about 11 o'clock,
the wedding
planner messaged and went,
"Everything's been done in
the courts.
"You're now legally married."
We had just such a lovely time.
That's kind of Ray on the beach.
Look at this. OK.
The two of us together.
You guys look good.
Look good together.
And went off and had the ceremony,
did a Jeep safari.
Yeah, it wasit was a nice day.
This looks like you had
a great time.
Mm-hm, yeah.
What did that mean to you
to now be husband and wife?
Just the final kind of ring on
the finger,
we're Mr and Mrs Owens.
Did you believe he loved you?
Yes.
OK. You know what I'm going to ask.
In that moment, did you love him?
Yes.
What was your dream of
what life was going to be like?
It was just excitement to be
moving
..into a new home,
starting having a nice daughter
come and staying
and bringing up the baby.
Just everything seemed
to be just falling into place.
So, now
..what happens?
So, we're one week married,
he comes home from work.
There's a one-week anniversary cake.
There's a one-week anniversary ring.
Oh, my goodness!
There's a card.
"Happy anniversary."
It's been one week.
We go out for tea, we come home,
sitting watching TV on the sofa
and my phone rings.
And it was my friend who doesn't
normally ring us,
she normally texts.
I'd been watching something
on the telly and just
I just got this gut feeling
to go on my phone.
It was this girl had put on that
her aunt was dating somebody,
was meeting up with
a guy in his 50s.
She'd been giving him money
and she was very unsure about him.
So, then I clicked on it.
I thought, "That's him.
That is Ray."
I was shaking, I was crying.
It wasn't a nice feeling at all.
He'd conned several
women out of money.
Somebody had lost their
business, their home.
And this had gone on,
I think it said in some of
the clips, from 2010.
So there'd been quite a few women.
I knew I had to tell her,
but I didn't want to tell her
because I knew by telling her
it was going to devastate
her whole life.
I picked up the phone
and she went,
"Mel, I need to tell you something,
"but I need to tell you
on your own."
Now, I could hear like
a panic in her voice.
So, I went upstairs and she went,
"I've seen a Facebook post."
And she went,
"I need you to see it."
There was a newspaper article,
and it was about him saying that
he was a serial fraudster.
It was his face
..but it also wasn't his name.
My heart just
It was just shock.
I went in the bathroom
and I locked the bathroom door.
It was just, "What on earth?"
It was like a bad dream.
Reality just wasn't
reality any more.
It's just a week since
Mel's wedding to the man
she knows as Raymond Owens.
But her friend Maria has sent her
an article that appears to name
Ray as a prolific fraudster.
And I went,
"I need to get out of this house
"and I need to get out quick.
"How am I going to do that?"
He's sitting downstairs on
my sofa, in my house.
So, I just basically
went downstairs and I went,
"My friend needs my help."
By the time I'd put shoes on,
she was outside my house.
In that moment,
did you feel like you were in danger?
Everything was
going through my head.
"Am I seeing things? Is that true?"
Unbelievable.
We drove around the corner.
I was sitting reading these other
previous articles from newspapers.
I was just in so much shock.
We just rang 999.
I couldn't speak.
I think my first words were,
"I think I've married a fraudster."
Like, I mean, how crazy
does that sound?
So, Maria was still on
the phone to the police
kind of explaining everything
and they said,
"Just under no circumstances
go home."
The police just kept in touch
with her via the phone.
They just said
they knew of him
and then what they said
was, they said
they were trying to get
a team together,
and until they got
a team together, they couldn't go.
I didn't know who Ray was
at this point.
I didn't know what he was
capable of.
I went back to Maria's house
and then at about half two
in the morning,
we got a phone call saying
that they've got the team ready.
Could we go and meet them
at the end of my road?
I had to stay in the car.
I wasn't allowed anywhere near
the house.
The police came and arrested him.
They brought him out.
He just showed no expression.
Just nothing.
I just couldn't believe it.
And what was the charge that
they were arresting him under?
It was fraud
and false representation.
That was it. I was allowed to
go back in the house.
She was devastated.
Absolutely devastated.
Her whole life had just blew
up in front of her.
Just blew up in front of her.
Everything that
she thought was, wasn't.
I would imagine that in that moment,
you're now thinking,
"What was real?" Mm-hm.
"What did he actually do?"
So, the police basically
were still in the house.
They said I was in, like,
a massive state of shock.
Did they hold him or was he released?
So, no, they held him and that
was when I learnt the truth.
What was the truth?
So, he wasn't Raymond Owens.
His daughter wasn't a daughter.
His sister wasn't his sister.
His mum hadn't died.
So, all the people that
were texting us were basically
Raymond on a number-changing phone.
It was all him? Mm-hm.
Yeah, the police
confirmed that there was
a marriage certificate that was in
his bag, but it was fake.
He then? I mean, I have so
many questions.
The wedding?
I'm not married.
The wedding planner,
I reached out to her.
She said that he didn't pay
her at the final hurdle,
so she didn't go and do the courts.
And he was changing not just his
name by deed poll to Owens,
he was also changing
my name to Owens.
So, that wouldn't
I'd never, ever question that
I wasn't his wife.
That would have then given him
access to everything that you have.
Yeah, mm-hm. OK. Yeah.
Home, et cetera. Yeah.
What about his job?
He wasn't a probation officer,
he was on probation.
He was on probation?
Yeah, he'd only been released from
prison in December 2023.
Two weeks before he met you? Yeah.
The place where he said he was
going to work
as a probation officer
was probation accommodation.
He wasn't working night shifts,
he was on licence.
So that was the reason why
every night he had
to leave by 6pm.
Oh, my goodness.
What about all the people
in Manchester?
He hadn't saved their lives,
they were prison officers.
What?!
Yeah, mm-hm.
They were prison officers
and probation officers
that Raymond had made kind of
a friendship with.
But before we got there,
he told all the people that,
"Mel knows the truth."
And that was why they were
congratulating him
and saying well done,
because they were so proud
for the first time
Raymond had come clean.
Yeah, he didn't just lie to me,
he played the whole room.
Nothing he told us about him,
not one thing, was real. Was real?
Not one thing.
What about the Army?
He was dishonourably discharged.
He hadn't been in
the Army 25-30 year,
I think he'd been in the Army,
like, three or four year.
Extreme conman. Yeah.
And he's done it all his life.
Everything was just unreal.
I think there was
so much being revealed,
she was finding out so many things,
and so many
things were lies, I think
She was just all over.
Like I say, heartbroken.
So, I asked the police what
happens next?
And they went,
"Well, he goes to prison.
"There'll be a court date,
and that's it."
And I was like, "That's not good
enough for me."
I needed answers.
So, I thought the only
way I'm going to get
those answers is go and visit him.
Inin prison?
Yeah. While I was arranging the
visits, letters started arriving.
Oh, it was Ray sending
you letters? Mm-hm. Yeah.
And so, this is the box
of the letters from prison.
Oh, my gosh, there's so much
in here, Mel. Yeah.
So, I got 146 letters.
So, this one is, "I miss you
every single minute of the day.
"I blow kisses to the sky
"and tell you I love you every
morning and evening.
"I will always love you."
This is creepy.
It's, like, unbelievable.
"I'm asking for a second chance."
"Will you let me spend my life
making it up to you?"
How can anybody make this up to
..up to us? He's trying to
manipulate you from prison.
How many times did you visit him
in prison?
I went about half a dozen times,
and I just
Every time it was just more lies.
He said the house was real.
How on earth he managed
to get solicitor's letters
and documents drawn up Right.
He fooled everyone.
When was the last time
you talked to Ray?
The last time I left prison.
I think my words were,
"When I get to court,
"I'm going to feed you to
the wolves."
He told us in prison that he was
going to plead guilty for me
because it saved dragging
us through trials and things.
I don't think that was the case.
I think he just pleaded guilty
cos it was the easier option.
He got four and a half year,
and the judge basically said,
"Even if I gave him a life sentence,
"it wouldn't be long enough."
His previous crimes,
he's took hundreds of thousands.
So then from a financial standpoint,
it seems as if he was setting you up
for something significant. Yeah.
Do I think they would have
moved in together?
Very possibly.
Do I think he would have
started taking loans and that out?
Definitely.
And I think it would have
all been in her name
and she would have been left
with a lot of debt.
The total time that
you were with Raymond,
from meeting him to
the day that you had him
arrested, how long was that?
Three month. Mm-hm.
Three months?
It's unbelievable. I actually said
that I wished he'd just come along
and asked us for money and ran.
Or I wish he'd just stuck
a knife in us
and that scar,
that would have healed.
Raymond kind of uses
a process of retraining your brain.
And I feel like I had to do
a whole process
to retrain my brain again
that you can trust people.
Do you believe there's anything else
that you'd like to say?
I just think people need to take on
board that we're victims here.
There's no shame in it.
And if it happens to you, it's OK.
I believe that you are a hero.
Yeah, aw.
I do. You are incredibly kind
and someone tried to dim your
light, but they didn't succeed.
No-one ever will again.
Can I have a big hug?
Of course you can.
All right, I'll take it,
I'll take it, I'll take it.
I've gotten all
the way through this,
now you've made us cry at
the last minute.
Oh, man, well, you know, those
are tears of joy right now. I know.
Pshhh!
This is the first conversation that
I've had where
I have heard about an abuser
so strategic
and so fixated on the long game.
What's so shocking here,
in Mel's case,
is how quickly Ray manipulated her.
The fact that she's able to reach
a place where you can reflect back
on those moments that happened
..and laugh at them,
you can reflect back and cry at them,
and both are OK.