SEDUCED BY A SOCIOPATH

Pursued by a very charming man during her divorce, mother of three Chrissy Handy entered into a three year relationship with a man purporting to be named Alexander de Rothschild. It turned out he was a serial fraudster and she was duped into selling her family home and backing him in a dream to create a new life for themselves in Switzerland with the children. Then after one night when she was persuaded by him to have unprotected sex, she fell pregnant. Giving birth without him there, she endured a series of lies and deceptions with Alexander saying he is called away on business in Geneva. Funding the academic life that she believed he was pursuing and his business interests, she handed over tens of thousands of pounds and eventually sold her house and took on a rented accommodation, seeing him only when it suited him and for short periods of time. With her tiny baby and with three children under eight years old, Chrissy had by the end of three and a half years handed over more than £500,000 to this 'international financier', the seemingly wealthy smooth-talking Alexander Marc D'Ariken de Rothschild-Hatton. And then he vanished, along with her money. After months of detective work she finally tracks him down in the USA, but the reality of his true identity is much darker than she could ever have imagined. He was finally brought to justice on charges of rape and indecent assault with a minor. Chrissy's story is heart-breaking, but she is a survivor and sadly one of many victims of this convicted fraudster. 262pp, paperback.