PERTH GRAND MOTHER JAILED IN JAPAN

ASH'S MUM DONNA WAS THE VICTIM OF A HEARTLESS LOVE SCAM

- By Emma Levett

Ashlee Charles is the designated “stress head of the family”, so she was wary when her mum, Donna Nelson, started a relationship with a man online.

Donna, now 59, met Kelly, a Nigerian man, on a dating website called AfroIntroductions in 2020.

“I had my reservations,” Ashlee, 38, from Perth, tells New Idea.

“I gave her a few warnings, like not to send him money, but I didn’t think it was too serious.” By December 2022, that had changed.

The pair, who'd been ‘dating’ for more than two years, became engaged and Donna planned a trip to meet Kelly in Japan a few weeks later.

“It didn’t make sense. He said he travelled all the time so why did he expect Mum to travel to meet him?” Ashlee says.

But the Perth grandmother was smitten; there wasn’t much anyone could do to stop her.

“She was determined to go,” Ashlee says. “She was flying to Laos first and she told me that was for a work thing. I made her install a tracking app on her phone so I could stalk her a bit.”