Duped By A Love Rat... And His Mum!

Rachael Moultrie thought she was a good judge of character, but then she had her heart broken...

- Matt Abbott & Anna Verdon

Every day, thousands of people log on to dating sites in the hope of finding love. Yes, you hear the odd horror story, but those are things that happen to other people, right? well, that’s what I thought. only, I learnt the hard way that you shouldn’t always be so trusting.

I had already had my fair share of heartbreak over the years and in October 2014, I found myself a single mum to my daughters Jess, then 15, Freya, six, and Eva, five. A lot of my friends had tried online dating, and with their help and encouragement, I decided to set up a profile of my own.

A couple of weeks after joining, there was a message in my inbox from a man called Dan. He said he was a divorced artist with 19-year-old twins, Ellie and Lauren. And from his picture, I could see he was well built with blue eyes – exactly my type.

A real family

We exchanged a few messages before Dan asked if he could give me a call – as we spoke, I couldn’t help but laugh at his jokes. And when later that week he suggested we meet up for coffee, I didn’t hesitate. If I’m honest, I was quite flattered that he was willing to drive all the way from his home in Bristol to meet me in Cardiff.

Three days later, Dan was already waiting for me with a cup of tea in the cafe. As we chatted about our children, soon two hours had gone by.

Already feeling quite smitten, I agreed to meet up again the following day. As I didn’t drive, Dan made the hour-long journey to me once again. That’s the way it went on for weeks – he’d pick me up and we’d go for dinner or to the cinema.