A guest on Good Morning Britain opened up about how she was forced to quit her job at a school after her colleague spread deepfake – and the gut-wrenching moment that she knew her class had seen it while on Friday’s episode of the ITV show.
Kirsty Pellant and Donna King appeared in the studio to talk to presenters Kate Garraway, 58, and Ranvir Singh, 48, about how one man that they knew had shared their images without their consent on pornography and escorting sites.
The pair didn’t work together at the same schools, but joined forces to figure out who was behind it.
They later found out it was a man called Jonathan Bates – and it has been so traumatic for Kirsty that she had to leave her job.
Ranvir pointed out: ‘You stopped working in a school…’
‘Yeah,’ Kirsty replied. Donna added: ‘We both did.’
A guest on Good Morning Britain opened up about how she was forced to quit her job at a school after her colleague spread deepfake – and the gut-wrenching moment that she knew her class had seen it while on Friday’s episode of the ITV show
The two spoke to Kate Garraway, 58, (pictured) and Ranvir Singh, 48, about how one man they knew had shared their images without their consent on pornography and escorting sites
They later found out it was former paratrooper Jonathan Bates, 55, who re-trained as a teacher, and it has been so traumatic for Kirsty that she had to leave her job
Kirsty added to the hosts: ‘For me, I worked with him, so there were so many reminders there. It was just a trigger point for me.
‘So in 2022, when we finally found out, not that he had been convicted at that point, but in 2022, when we found out, you just have flashbacks of the class and the interactions that you had.
‘It was just all a bit tainted and the trust completely goes, everybody you’re thinking is going to be saying something, or doing something.
‘You just don’t trust anybody.’
Elsewhere in the interview, Ranvir pointed out: ‘There was a moment at school where you were talking about safeguarding themselves on WhatsApp, and what happened?’
Kirsty explained: ‘So one of the children said to me, ‘Well, what about the photographs that you’ve put online? At that moment, you know when everything stops for you, and you feel that gut-wrenching moment.
‘I did answer it in a professional way and had to explain that I hadn’t done any of this, but they had said they had seen it on their parents’ phone.
‘So that started another whole conversation.’
Kirsty Pellant and Donna King appeared in the studio to talk to presenters
Recalling the moment she discovered her face and name was being used on the sites, Kirsty said: ‘So a man had come to my house on Valentine’s Day and delivered a Valentine’s card, which is unusual, I don’t get loads of Valentine’s cards. It was unusual in itself anyway.’
She continued: ‘He just popped it through the letterbox, looked out the window and saw a man walking away that I didn’t recognise.
‘Then I think it was the day after, or a couple of days later, I got a message on my LinkedIn, my professional LinkedIn page, from the man, saying “Hope you like the Valentine’s card.
‘Asking me why we hadn’t met because he was thinking he was in a relationship with me, wanting other things.’
A shocked Ranvir asked: ‘How did he find your address?’
Kirsty said: ‘He had been sent my address by John.’
She told the hosts that she then found out that she was on escorting, dating and inappropriate websites.
Kirsty recalled: ‘So it was my normal photograph along with some explicit, disgusting things. Offering my services basically.’
Kate wanted to know how Donna had found out about her pictures and she told the presenter: ‘So it was a couple of years after Kirsty.
‘I had a message from a man on a social media page, and he was like I saw you, and it was a pornographic website. I was like, “What is that all about?” I didn’t know what the website was.
‘He messaged me, I had to explain to him that’s not me. After that, I started to search myself online and that’s when lots more came up.
‘Some of the pornographic websites that I had found myself on, there were associated pictures of other victims.
‘I then went on to try and search the other victims to see if I could work out who the perpetrator was.’
Ranvir asked: ‘How did you catch him?’
She replied: ‘It was going through the other victims. Finding out who we had in common on a social website, that was key. It took me a lot, a lot of research.
‘There was so many websites I had to search to find a victim’s first name, and surname.
‘It was a lot of work, a lot of time. Very time consuming.’
The two women have been invited to Parliament for a question and answer, as well as share their experience to make changes made.
They will also be on our screens this Sunday to star in Faked: Hunting My Online Predator this Sunday on ITV1 at 10.20pm.
Good Morning Britain airs on ITV1 weekdays from 6am and is available to stream on ITVX.
