to corroborate the claim. As with the Homolka relationship, Magnotta repeatedly denied other claims that he had planted as hoaxes, and as part of a campaign of cyberstalking against him. The Toronto Sun reporter who had interviewed Magnotta in 2007 about the Homolka rumours later said that he had found him "troubled", and that he had suspected at the time that Magnotta had made up the rumours to gain attention. However, he had assumed that Magnotta was "if anything (...) more of a danger to himself". A trans woman who had briefly dated Magnotta at the time said in 2012 that he was obsessed with becoming famous, and that he seemed to perceive Homolka and her accomplice Paul Bernardo as "role models". Early criminal activity In 2005, Magnotta, who was going by his birth name at the time, was convicted of one count of impersonation and three counts of fraud (against Sears Canada, The Brick, and 2001 Audio Video): he had taken advantage of a mentally disabled young woman by convincing her to apply for credit cards and then using those cards himself to purchase over $10,000 worth of goods. He was also accused of sexually assaulting the woman, although that charge was later dropped. He pleaded guilty, and received a nine-month conditional sentence with 12 months of probation. The court noted at the time that Magnotta had "significant psychiatric issues" and did not always take his medication. In 2010, Magnotta posted on YouTube a video titled 1 boy 2 kittens, in which he deliberately suffocated two kittens in a plastic bag with a vacuum cleaner. He later published a second video of himself, this time drowning a cat in a bathtub. A third video showed him feeding a cat to a python. In January 2011, a private Facebook group identified Magnotta as the person in these videos; animal rights activist groups subsequently offered a $5,000 reward for bringing him to justice. He was initially dubbed the "Vacuum Kitten Killer" by the online animal activists. The Internet community which had identified Magnotta reported him to authorities, warning that after committing acts of animal cruelty, he might pose a threat to humans. Their investigation was later chronicled in the 2019 true crime docuseries Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer. In February 2011, Toronto police began investigating Magnotta in connection with the videos, after receiving a complaint from the Ontario