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Thread: Who Was Paul Lachlan? NSW Police Attempt To Identify Deceased Man Who Used False Identity

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Who Was Paul Lachlan? NSW Police Attempt To Identify Deceased Man Who Used False Identity

    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...group_activity








    NSW Police Force
    Police are appealing for public information to help positively identify a man who was found deceased in Manly last year, as a Coronial inquest into the man?s death begins.

    The man, believed to be about 46 years old, was known as Paul Lachlan, and lived in West Esplanade, Manly.

    On Thursday 20 November 2014, the man was discovered deceased in his home on West Esplanade.

    The death is not believed to be suspicious.

    Despite extensive inquiries, police have not been able to positively identify the man. He was not in possession of any identification or identifying documentation and police have not been able to locate any family who can confirm his identity.

    Police have not located any bank accounts or communication services in his name. It appears the man took significant effort to not have his name recorded by government departments, agencies or businesses.

    Police believe the man entered Australia from the United Kingdom, possibly Manchester, sometime in the 1990s; however there is no further information on his movements available.

    Due to police being unable to be conclusively established his identity throughout the investigation, officers are unable to confirm his name is Paul Lachlan.

    Police are seeking to identify the man so next of kin can be identified and funeral arrangements can be made.

    The Coroner?s inquest has been adjourned until 16 February 2016 in the hope some information comes from the public which will help identify the man.

  2. #2
    Administrator Olivia's Avatar
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    Wow. So weird! No bank account so how did he survive? Manly isn't cheap to rent or own a place at. I want to know more.

  3. #3
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Hmm. A few people mentioned this in the comments. This lady has been searching for her missing brother - but surely NSW Police would be aware of this & he'd be the first name they checked of their "possibles" list


    https://m.facebook.com/helpfindmartin/








    Edit On second thought, they're similar, but the ears are totally wrong. I'd say this guy was checked out & cleared.
    Last edited by blighted star; 12-10-2015 at 08:24 PM.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Words Words's Avatar
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    weird. that first pic and the smiles are the exact same.
    and I'm usually the first to doubt same cat shit.

  5. #5
    Senior Member More Cowbelle's Avatar
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    I think these are not the same man. Ears and chin are different....

  6. #6
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Family have also pointed out the differences - of course that hasn't stopped "helpful" strangers who have only seen a handful of photos, correcting the family members & telling them that strangers know better than they do


    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...88630754648700



    Help us find Martin David Roberts
    December 11 at 6:43pm ?
    Hello everyone, I've had 100s of messages about the recent appeal by NSW police for the deceased man found, and I've been contacted directly by them, obviously there is a likeness between the photo and Martin but I'm praying this isn't him, I'll keep the page updated
    Harriet


    http://www.mygc.com.au/police-appeal...-deceased-man/
    https://www.facebook.com/nswpolicefo...?type=3&theate


    Janice Law
    I think this man has different ears then Martin and a bit different in the chin, all the best Harriet
    Unlike6Reply ? More ? Friday at 8:55pm


    Help us find Martin David Roberts
    My thoughts also, the photo was taken in 1997 I believe, just going through the motions with the police for identifying him, thank you

  7. #7
    Moderator Bewitchingstorm's Avatar
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    Very odd. Clearly not the same guy. I hope they figure out who he is.

  8. #8
    Administrator Olivia's Avatar
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    More photos






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    Moderator Bewitchingstorm's Avatar
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    It kind of reminds me of the case of "Lyle Stevik", which I have always found so intriguing:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_Stevik

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  11. #11
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Wow. He looks SO different in the more recent ones. I wonder who &/or what he'd cut himself off from

  12. #12
    Senior Member trepid's Avatar
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    He looks very Eastern European in appearance . . . maybe Albanian.

    It's not like it is unheard of for people from these regions or those involved in syndicates or whatever to have the means to enter Australia on fake passports and exist under the radar.

  13. #13
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    You reminded me of something, Trepid. Did you see the articles recently on the member of the Russian Royals who died after living for years under another identity in Katherine?


    http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...australia.html

  14. #14
    Senior Member trepid's Avatar
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    In the Northern Territory!?

    What the hell.

    You know, with that sort of brutal family history, I probably would of opted to go by a pseudonym and lived in a caravan park in N.T too.

    Old habits born from Eastern Europe paranoia is hard to shake.

  15. #15
    Senior Member trepid's Avatar
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    Oh!

    And old mate Paul here may soon be positively ID'd.

    A woman in Manchester who saw the appeal has contacted investigators and has indicated that she is fairly confident it may be her AWOL brother. She has submitted her DNA to see if it is a match.

    If it is her brother, it would appear that he left Manchester when he was 19, travelled to New Zealand and then onwards to Australia to "start a new life". The family lost contact with him at some point beyond this timeframe but he was never reported missing.

    It is very peculiar that there is no paper trail of his existence and for all intents and purposes, he seemed to actively seek to stay off the radar. Not even a digital fingerprint.

    Even more peculiar is his ability to live off the grid while residing in a waterfront apartment in Manly . . .



    Latest article . . . with three other curious cases of missing persons at the bottom of the article - Martin David Roberts, Richie Edwards from the Manic Street Preachers and Kevin Hicks:

    http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/rea...0fd8ce6d9890dd
    Last edited by trepid; 01-16-2016 at 10:50 AM.

  16. #16
    Senior Member Words Words's Avatar
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    are there pics of the other possible people at the link? ...I don't feel like clicking it, but I want to compare.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jolly Roger View Post
    Because they are probably not ghetto and hood like me.

  17. #17
    Administrator Olivia's Avatar
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    Has anyone seen any updates on this? I want to know and can't find anything.

  18. #18
    Administrator Olivia's Avatar
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    I found this

    THE identity of mysterious Brit found dead in his waterfront Manly apartment in 2014 has been revealed by a man claiming to be his ex-boyfriend.

    The development comes as police await the results of DNA tests on a UK woman who believes she might be his sister.

    The deceased man, who called himself Paul Lachlan and lived a double life for 20 years, went to extraordinary lengths to hide his past.

    He managed to keep up the act for a group of friends so close they regarded him as ?extended family?, babysitting their children, who adored him, and taking their elderly mothers shopping.

    In December, police renewed a public appeal for help in identifying the man, whose secret was discovered only after investigators trying to track down his next-of-kin found no record existed of him in Australia.

    A search of his home and personal belongings failed to uncover documentation of any kind; there were no bank cards, no drivers licence, no digital fingerprint and no paper trail.

    The man did, however, have friends. They told investigators they thought ?Pommy Paul? had emigrated to Australia from Manchester in the mid-1990s.

    Immigration officials in both countries were consulted but could turn up no evidence to support the story.

    Now a British man has told news.com.au that the man known as ?Paul Lachlan? travelled to Australia with him on a tourist visa in 1995 and that his real name was Jon Pritchard.

    ?He was from Wigan (a town in Greater Manchester) and had a mother and sister,? Richard Martin told news.com.au.

    Mr Martin spent three years working as a chef in Australia and New Zealand between 1990 and 1996 but met Mr Prichard, a fellow chef, in the UK.

    ?We were in a relationship,? he said. ?I decided to return to Sydney to work and to live with friends in Redfern. Jon followed me but it didn?t work out.?

    Mr Martin said he learned about the death of man he believes was Mr Pritchard ?accidentally? after a friend shared a Facebook appeal about ?Paul Lachlan? by Manly Police.

    He recognised the photograph ?immediately? and even thought it might be one he had taken himself.

    In an earlier story, we reported that Northern Beaches Crime Manager Chris Wonders told news.com.au a woman had contacted investigators after seeing photographs of Lachlan in the Manchester press during last month?s appeal.

    ?She is fairly confident that it?s her brother,? Northern Beaches crime manager, Chief Inspector Wonders, told news.com.au at the time.

    ?We?re in the process of obtaining DNA for testing and until we have those results there?s no way we can be 100 per cent certain of a match, but she has identified the man as her brother from looking at the photographs.?

    ?It seems this woman?s brother left Manchester and went to New Zealand to start a new life before coming to Australia,? he said.

    ?He left when he was 19, left his job and just wanted to make a fresh start. That?s what his family believed and then over the years they just lost contact with him. No, they never reported him missing.?

    The woman said her brother was born in 1968, which tallied with the mystery man?s estimated age of 46 or 47.

    On Friday, Insp Wonders said he could not comment on Mr Martin?s claims or confirm whether the name Jon Pritchard matched that given by the woman who offered her DNA for comparison.

    ?We won?t be saying anything until we know the results of those tests,? he said.

    ?IT NEVER OCCURRED TO US HE WASN?T WHO HE SAID HE WAS?

    Somehow, the man known as Paul Lachlan was able to sever ties with family, start a new life in a new country under a fake name and survive comfortably in one of Sydney?s most affluent suburbs without any visible means of support for several years.

    Even more incredibly, he managed to forge deep and lasting friendships with a number of people who came to view him as ?extended family? and who got the shock of their lives when they saw ?Pommy Paul? featured in a NSW Police appeal last month ahead of an inquest set down for February.

    The inquest was to have taken place on the first anniversary of his death but was delayed two months while police made a last-ditch effort to identify him.

    ?He was so loveable and so nice, he just had that real English charm,? Rochelle, one of Lachlan?s longtime friends, told news.com.au.

    The married mother, who spoke on the condition her surname was withheld, met the Brit with her husband when Lachlan was working for a furniture removalist company on Sydney?s Northern Beaches in 2002 or 2003.

    ?He was very caring person, always very gentle,? Rochelle said.

    ?He used to house sit for us and look after the dogs when we went away. He was really clean and tidy. He got on really well with my mother-in-law. He spent time with his friends, he?d watch movies and play PlayStation, enjoyed his beer. He was always going off on holiday ? or said he was. We often got the feeling he was exaggerating things, that what he told us wasn?t completely true but it didn?t matter because we liked him so much.

    ?He really loved shopping and we used to go to the markets together. He didn?t have a job but he always had money ? I was always quite envious. He told us he had stocks and shares, from his parents I think, and that he lived off that.

    We thought he owned the apartment (on Manly?s exclusive West Esplanade) ? he told us he owned it ? and it wasn?t until after he died that we found out it was his flatmate who owned it.?

    Mr Martin told news.com.au that Mr Pritchard?s habit of stretching the truth had contributed to their break up.

    ?Not to be unkind, but he was a fantasist, which was one of the biggest problems (we had),? he said.

    Even more invested in Lachlan than Rochelle was their mutual friend Mandy, who described him as ?extended family?. Mandy also requested her surname be withheld but confirmed that she, like Rochelle?s husband Tim, had spoken to investigators.

    ?What did he do in his spare time? He spent it with us,? Mandy told news.com.au.

    ?He would join in family barbecues. He was quite a closed book but he was very givng, really good with my kids ? he was amazing with them. My boys really loved him, he was like an extended family member.

    ?In fact my sons saw him in Manly a week before he passed away and said that he was good, looked well, seemed happy. So it was a shock when he died. Even more of a shock to find out he?s not who we thought he was.?

    Lachlan told Mandy and Rochelle he?d trained as a chef back in England and had worked through an agency. He didn?t have a driver?s licence and both women recalled him psyching himself up for driving lessons he said he was taking, and which he would always fail.

    Rochelle said Lachlan gave the impression that he was in constant contact with his family in England, regaling phone conversations with his sister, whom he said lived in Preston, Manchester and often spoke of a niece.

    ?I?m sure the niece came to visit, or he said she was coming for a visit, but we never actually saw her,? Rochelle said.

    ?It?s very creepy. It?s scary because we never thought for a minute that Paul wasn?t who he said he was. It never occurred to us.?

    http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/rea...79bd67fb8b7add

  19. #19
    What do you care? Boston Babe 73's Avatar
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    I looked all over and the only additional information I found was that he took his own life. I'm assuming that since nothing was reported after March of this year that it was indeed Jon Pritchard. Both his Sister and his Ex seemed to be pretty confident that it was him.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    That is too pretty to be shoved up an ass.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



  20. #20
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    They I.D'ed him


    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mystery-ma...19-gwua2d.html

    [QUOTE]
    An Englishman who went to extraordinary lengths to live a double life in Australia before he was found dead in a Sydney unit in 2014 has been identified by a coroner as John Pritchard.

    The man's former boyfriend found his body in a Manly unit but when authorities attempted to identify him, it soon became apparent many aspects of his life didn't stack up.

    Mr Pritchard went by the name Paul Lachlan while in Australia and NSW Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame on Monday described him as "somewhat mysterious" and "ultimately quite unknowable, even to those closest to him".

    Throughout a 17-year relationship his ex-partner, who can't be named for legal reasons, never saw official mail, a driver's licence, Medicare card, tax file number or passport.

  21. #21
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Dammit. Screwed the quote & I still can't edit.

  22. #22
    What do you care? Boston Babe 73's Avatar
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    He had a boyfriend for SEVENTEEN years and he didn't think the no ID or any other official paperwork was strange? Talk about turning a blind eye.

    Welp, at least he's been identified now.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    That is too pretty to be shoved up an ass.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



  23. #23
    Administrator Olivia's Avatar
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    Link to the Coronial Inquest for this guy -

    http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov....%20LACHLAN.pdf


    Weird that they have redacted his cause of death? Isn't that one of the main points of a CORONIAL inquest?

  24. #24
    Most awesome Member emmy_dreamy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Olivia View Post
    Link to the Coronial Inquest for this guy -

    http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov....%20LACHLAN.pdf


    Weird that they have redacted his cause of death? Isn't that one of the main points of a CORONIAL inquest?
    Under the non-publication section it reads:

    Pursuant to section 75 of the Coroners Act 2009, I order that there is no publication of evidence disclosing the cause or manner of death.

    So I'm assuming the court issued a gag order or something.
    http://mydeathspace.com/vb/signaturepics/sigpic8247_1.gif

  25. #25
    Senior Member curiouscat's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=blighted star;3736284]They I.D'ed him


    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mystery-ma...19-gwua2d.html

    An Englishman who went to extraordinary lengths to live a double life in Australia before he was found dead in a Sydney unit in 2014 has been identified by a coroner as John Pritchard.

    The man's former boyfriend found his body in a Manly unit but when authorities attempted to identify him, it soon became apparent many aspects of his life didn't stack up.

    Mr Pritchard went by the name Paul Lachlan while in Australia and NSW Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame on Monday described him as "somewhat mysterious" and "ultimately quite unknowable, even to those closest to him".

    Throughout a 17-year relationship his ex-partner, who can't be named for legal reasons, never saw official mail, a driver's licence, Medicare card, tax file number or passport.
    I don't understand. John's ex found his body, but didn't tell the police the man's real name until much later?!

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