Paradise Lost

For Annie Predun it was a whirlwind romance. Her new man was warm, funny and made her feel as if she was the only woman in the world. For Sean Whelan she was — until he got $100,000. Michael Clifford unravels the background to the story

ANNIE PREDUN was nervous as she waited for her perfect Irishman. He was flying in on Virgin Atlantic, for the first face-to-face meeting in a relationship that had sparked on Match.com, an internet dating site. He was based in Dublin, she in Orlando, Florida. And on the day in question, June 19, 2007, she was going to meet the man whose charm had radiated from her laptop.

Sean Whelan’s plane landed at Orlando International airport that afternoon, and he turned out to be all she had expected and more. He had introduced himself on the site as a 53-year-old management consultant, separated with three grown-up children. That much was true. Annie, who had worked as a sales and marketing professional, had been divorced for six years at the time of the internet match-up. She had three sons, all in their 20s. She had moved down to Florida from her New York home months previously.