ESCAPE FROM A KIDNAPPER

TRICKED INTO MEETING A MONSTER ONLINE, ALICIA'S NOW VOWING TO PROTECT OTHERS

-  Ruth McCarthy

Alicia Kozakiewicz’s childhood was nothing short of perfect. The bright, blue-eyed, blondehaired teenager from the Pennsylvanian city of Pittsburgh adored her stay-at-home mum, Mary, who was always there for Alicia and her older brother, Chuck. And considering the nine-year age gap, as far as siblings go, Alicia and Chuck got along well.

Then there was her dad, Charles. Despite working long hours to provide for his family, he was the model husband and father, and never missed cherished family time.

“My childhood was filled with so much love and fun,” Alicia recalls, sharing her story on the BBC Radio 4 show, I Simply Vanished. “It was idyllic.”

But on New Year’s Day 2002, the unimaginable happened that shattered the world of the innocent, helpless young girl forever. The year before, when the internet was beginning to enter the home, Alicia’s parents had treated their kids to a computer with internet access.

Sitting in the family room, Alicia’s brother loved to play games online and then 13-year-old Alicia noticed him playing what looked like a computer board game with other online gamers. Alicia, unlike her peers, loved board games and started innocently playing her favourite board games online with other like-minded people.

Regularly logging on, Alicia was introduced to a boy online through friends of friends. She believed he was the same age and, although she’d never met him, she thought he was OK because she was introduced to him through people she knew. Back then, the dangers of cyberbullying, grooming and online predators were unknown and it seemed incomprehensible that the internet was an unsafe place.