fraud: katie ringer set up an account on an online fundraising page to ask members of the public to put money towards her fictional child's funeral  a 'wicked' internet troll who invented sob stories about a dead daughter to steal thousands of pounds in donations has been jailed for three years katie ringer set up a fake account on an online fundraising page to ask kind hearted members of the public to put money towards the fictional child's funeral costs the 19 year old, who carried out the fraud from her parents' home in shoeburyness, essex, also abused a number of victims over the internet, sending them 'vile' photos of dead relatives ringer, who has no children, stole photos of other people's children from facebook to support her 'web of lies', the court heard she was jailed for three years at basildon crown court today judge samantha leigh said: 'you preyed on the generosity of the british public 'we all know how generous the public can be and how vast amounts of money can be raised   you only have to look at children in need and last friday's comic relief for examples 'what you did only has one word and that is wicked you spun a web of lies to draw these people in and played on their emotions to extort money they could ill afford to donate' the teenager constructed a 'web of lies', the court heard, that included claims she needed money for her child's funeral and to feed her young children who had specialist dietary requirements juliet donovan, prosecuting, said: 'a fundraising page set up by miss ringer on youcaringcom makes reference to the death of a child and requests donations for funeral arrangements 'five successful donations were made all the pleas made for donations were found to be completely unfounded 'the total value of the fraud was £3,000 including a number of unknown victims who donated' ringer also sent victims vile abuse over the internet and blackberry mobile messaging one victim was sent a picture of her own grandmother's gravestone with a caption: 'burn in hell b***h i hope you're raped by devils' another received an image of her dead daughter with the caption: 'daddy raped me' ringer left another victim terrified for their safety after threatening to firebomb their home mike warren, mitigating, admitted his clients actions had been 'evil' and could not be justified he said: 'this case has attracted quite a lot of attention these were all evil offences committed from her own bedroom 'cowardly offences that she does accept caused much distress to individuals and their families' the court heard how unemployed ringer used an iphone, ipad and laptop to create fake fundraising claims and spew vile abuse between august 2012 and january 2014 ringer admitted 14 charges of fraudulently collecting money, eight charges of harassment and one of threatening to blow up a victim's house at a previous hearing she was jailed for three years and was made the subject of a restraining order banning her from contacting any of her victims the troll was forced to flee her home to norwich, norfolk, after angry victims mobbed her house speaking outside court today, victim leah cushion, 24, from southend, essex, described the anguish she suffered after receiving pictures of her dead baby with sick captions from ringer the mother of four said: 'my daughter passed away in 2009 due to cot death and it was very hard to cope with sentenced: the 'wicked' 19 year old was jailed for three years at basildon crown court, pictured, today  'i started receiving pictures of my child saying 'my daddy raped me' and other sick captions 'no one can imagine how hard it is to receive that when you are still coming to terms with a death 'i'm relieved this is all over with now but i feel she should have got a longer sentence three years does not reflect just how many lives she has ruined' leah's partner ray dadds , 27, a mechanic from southend, added: 'seeing it made me so angry but i knew i couldn't take it out on the girl as i would never hit a woman 'i wouldn't wish what we went through on my worst enemy   not even katie she will get out of prison in 18 months but we will not have recovered from this by then' after the trial, senior district crown prosecutor for the cps in the east of england, punam malhan said: 'ringer fraudulently made more than £2,000 from people who believed her tragic stories about ill children, which were all untrue 'she took advantage of their kind and generous nature, and gained financially by telling stories, for example of needing money for a dead daughter's funeral, among many other creative tales 'ringer also set up fake profiles on facebook, using other people's pictures of their children in her scams and uploaded pictures with racist messages and comments 'in one communication she also threatened to blow up one of her victims' homes in this instance, these victims took these threats extremely seriously and feared for their lives 'ringer had no regard for the damage she caused and the untold effects her criminality has had on her victims   not just the financial loss but on their general well being 'she continually abused people via the wholly inappropriate use of social media outlets for her own gain 'we hope the sentence handed down today shows how committed the cps is to prosecuting cases of this nature and sends a message that malicious communications will not be tolerated'
katie ringer 19 year old today
katie ringer set up fundraising page to ask for donations for child's funeral . the 19 year old also claimed she needed money to feed other children . she also sent 'vile' photos to victims over internet in spree of online abuse . teenager, who carried out fraud from parents' home, was jailed today 