October 23, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode, we catch up with Linda, and a lot has changed. She’s not afraid of John anymore or the power he used to have over her. After the women connected, Monica set up a WhatsApp group so everyone could talk and support each other. But as more women joined, not everyone agreed with the mission, and things got a bit tense.
When the last podcast aired, some nasty comments started popping up online, questioning how they could have stayed with him or given him money. But Linda’s not letting that get to her.
She also talks about John's 'hacking' skills (or lack of), going to court with Monica to get protection from John, and shares more about what he stole from them, including some very intimate things, and gifted to the other ladies.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-dating-orange-podcast--5898530/support.
When the last podcast aired, some nasty comments started popping up online, questioning how they could have stayed with him or given him money. But Linda’s not letting that get to her.
She also talks about John's 'hacking' skills (or lack of), going to court with Monica to get protection from John, and shares more about what he stole from them, including some very intimate things, and gifted to the other ladies.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-dating-orange-podcast--5898530/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You meet a man. He's funny, attentive, he actually listens
to you. You go on a date and you get
home with sore cheeks from laughing. He says all the
right things, wants the same things. It feels easy and rare.
Dates turn into a relationship and you think this is
exactly what you've been looking for. Now imagine discovering everything
(00:23):
he told you was a lie, and you're only one
of many women he has on the go. This is
a story of Filthy John, a compulsive liar, a manipulator,
a man with a serious drug problem, a habit of stealing,
and a dangerous temper. On the surface, he was hilarious, affectionate,
the perfect man. But behind the scenes, he was creating
(00:45):
chaos in multiple women's lives, lying to them, mirroring their personalities,
love bombing, stealing, vanishing, reappearing, and slowly wrecking their sense
of reality. These women didn't just overlap their lives became
tangled in the most bizarre ways. These women didn't just
(01:08):
overlap their lives became tangled in the most bizarre ways.
These women didn't just overlap their lives became tangled in
the most bizarre ways. In this podcast. You'll hear from
five of them, five women brave enough to sit down
and tell their story. There are more, but some of
them are too scared to speak. This is a story
(01:28):
about manipulation, survival, and the power that comes when women
start comparing notes. In this episode, we hear from Linda
for the second time. In her first episode, she shared
the chaos John brought into her life, the thefts, the lies,
the gaslighting about her health that led her to get
hearing aids. She didn't even need the cheating and even
(01:51):
the alleged phone hackings. But this time things are different.
Linda isn't afraid of him anymore. She has taken back
her power and her story now comes from a place
of strength, not fear.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
We recorded the podcast that was grand and Monica was
actually still in touch with John. So when we were
talking to John Starter's mother we'll call her Rita, we
knew there was a pending core case coming up in
terms of their custody arrangement, so we kind of felt
it was important to try and gather as much she
could for for Rita for the for the court case,
(02:29):
just in terms of you know, his drug use is lying,
his cheat and you know his general behavior, especially when
the child is there. What we started, well, Monica initially
started to do was records the phone calls, so we
kept that learning communication open on behalf of Rea and
actually for all of us. We all kind of suppose
when we actually realized who John is, we were all
(02:50):
getting quite a kick out of it because he had
no idea that we were all in touch with each other.
And every time he came up with some of his
Buchet stories, we all knew it was crap like but
then of nowhere. Then, I play a lot of chess
and Scrabble online and tournaments and stuff, and John would
have been aware of this because he used to play
with me as well. But he challenged me to a
(03:11):
game of Scrabble on my app. I sent a screenshots
with the girls and I was like, well, I do
here like and they're like thirily once and I was like,
oh god, So I accepted it. We played against Scrabble,
and of course you can conversate in the game. It
was it was basically him just being John, all of
his gas lighting and crap, the usual stuff. I'm sorry
(03:32):
for everything I messed up. I missh it. Can we
talk on WhatsApp, so I said, yeah, no, but no,
bear in mind, I was fully aware at this stage
of who John was. This is me playing along, you know.
Basically it was just him trying to get me to
drop my pending case against some over the theft of
the dongle, which is still ongoing. Okay, So he was
(03:54):
basically just trying to do John trying to get me
to drop the case. But in the meantime I was
also recording everything and got him to admit to taking
drugs and you know, just all the lies. Oh my god,
like he's he hasn't changed, but he hasn't learned one thing,
not one thing. He's still the very same. The wife
I talk is the only thing I can prove that
(04:16):
he took only because Monica believe it or now, because
he sent her a picture and the dongles in the picture,
and that was months after the fact that he told
me he didn't take it, and it's a picture of
it in his house. So that's that's the only thing
I can approved that he took because obviously I'm going
to regards about all my property when I found out
just the level of test, you know, and so that's
(04:39):
still ongoing at the moment, so it's pending. Still went
in this very slow process. My plan is to still
put fire ahead with that and pushed it as far
as I can if nothing comes with it. And nothing
comes with it, but it would be great to hold
him accountable for his actions as well. When I got
back to talking to him, I said to him, See,
Anya and I at the time worked within a close
proximity to each other, literally across the road from each other,
(05:02):
so he didn't know that, my selven on, you knew
each other. And I said to him, I see this lovely,
lovely woman in a little cafe near my job from
time to time. It's just your friend Anya. Now, he
had always said Anya was just a friend who was
never in a relationship with Anya. You know, she's an
old friend his this, that and the other. And I
was like, and he goes, yeah, yeah, she probably was
(05:23):
because she lives close. And I was I was saying,
I was thinking about saying hello to her, and he goes,
he was calling my bluffy, Yeah, you're sure, she's very friendly.
So I met Anya one day for a coffee in
the restaurant close to where we work and said to him,
a selfie of me and her, and I said, just
had a very interesting conversation with this lovely lady, and
(05:44):
he said, I bet you did. So that's when that
was me letting him know I know about all the
all the lies, and now Onye does two.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
When John found out about the podcast, he didn't take
it well. In true John fashion, he lashed out, angry, defensive,
and desperate to regain control. Monica took the brunt of it,
receiving a stream of messages and abuse. But what John
didn't realize was that he was only digging himself in deeper.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
He hit the roof. He went absolutely mental, and Monica
managed to capture this as well in a recording where
he was trending to come for me Anya and or
if she didn't take down the podcast. He got very nasty,
very nasty. So obviously the guards got involved, so and myself,
Anya and Monica where were granted protection orders, pending safety orders.
(06:33):
He didn't really seem to care. He came hard and heavy,
especially to Monica, with the threats, a threat of violence,
threatening to come into her house, and you know, really
really going out as a way to intimidate her. I
wasn't really in a bad situation because John is very
aware that I have an adult son and I have
an adult brother that lives across the road for me
as well, so he'd never get away with that come
(06:55):
into my house like, but Monica was way more vulnerable,
you know, I have to say. As bad as he
was with all the threats, the women were amazing. Everybody
rallied around Monarch in particular because she was closest to
him and she was the most vulnerable. Even Rita hit
the mother of his child and her her husband, you know,
offering to go up and stay with her and I
(07:15):
you know, she, you know, everybody we all looked after
each other, you know, because we were scared, you know,
we were you know, he can be horrible, horrible man.
Myself and Monica in particular, we actually we have a
nice where we you know, we would meet up and
have a good few drinks. During that stage where John
wasn't aware of what is going on, he kept ringing
(07:35):
Monica and I'd be there in the background, and he
didn't know, like the shity be coming out with like,
you know, pure and utter lies, making fun of his
current girlfriend, going on about her tattoo, calling her crazy
forgetting the tattoo and all. His current girlfriend is one
of the women that I was told when I met
up with Rita about so I think he's with with
(07:56):
her a long time, you know, on and offer with
other women and her. I'm not really sure of the
dynamic obviously, because she we tried to, we tried to
reach out and help her, but she wasn't interested. You know,
he was on He was on a call to Monica
making fun of her for doing that, you know, basically
kind of put across that she was sad for doing
that and this and the other, and apparently she had
(08:17):
sent him a picture of an a gage ring and all,
and he was basically just poking fun at her, saying, Monica,
how do I get out of this situation? And all
this kind of stuff, And of course Monic was just
pissing himself laugh and I was actually on the floor
beside her laughing because he didn't even know he was there,
Like but like this he's still doing this thing to women,
like when there was way to make his current girlfriend
(08:37):
sounded like an absolute crazy noo case, like you know,
to try and keep Monica sweet. But he wasn't aware,
you know that like we were totally onto him, like
we know everything. He's just when I was recording him
secretly when when he was ringing me after the scrabble
of the game, I was trying to get as much
information out him as possible, and I was saying, he said,
(08:58):
ask me anything and I'll tell you the true And
I was like, were you in a relationship with Monica
when I was in a relationship here? No, honest to god, no,
my gods, it was absolutely not blah blah blah. You know.
So he was still lying about everything, like me and
the girls are listening to the recordings that or so
we were like, what's actually wrong with Emily? But I
have to tell you, I quite enjoyed, you know, being
(09:18):
in the drive and see in that situation for a while.
I secretly really enjoy it, you know, having that one
up on him for a change, you know, you know,
after everything that he had put Metro, it was nice
for him to feel like the idiot in this situation.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
At the start of twenty twenty five, as more and
more women began connecting and realizing their shared experiences, Monica
decided to set up a WhatsApp group called Karma. It
became a safe space where everyone could talk openly about
what had happened with John. At one point there were
twelve women in the group, most with their own version
of the sorry story.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Just as the podcast we were getting ready to they
were getting released. It was a bit of a follow
on with all the ladies. Now, when I say I
follow I suppose it wasn't an argument as such. It
was just a couple of the women got spooked because
I suppose they were scared of John's reaction. You know,
one saw this came out, they were worried they were
(10:17):
going to get dragged into it. So there was a
little bit of a divide down the middle there, which
was unfortunate because all of the ladies are so lovely
and I don't blame them for being afraid. I suppose
the more we jug into the situation and really found
out who John is, the less scary he became. Like
he's so full of shit. It's might even funny now
that I'm in the situation that I am, and I
(10:38):
know who John is, looking back on my previous behavior,
how I reacted, you know, if he was upset and
this set and the other I really disappointed at myself
because he's just a fucking age Like, there's nothing special
about John. He has no hidden talents in terms of
hacking stuff. He just convinced me that he was just
really good at all this stuff, and he's not. He
(11:00):
did send me my passwords when when we were breaking up,
but he had told me stories about being able to
hack other people's accounts and find information. And he had
a guard friend named Pat. He had hacked into some
girls snapchat to delete the chat history because his guard
apparently was going to be in trouble for something he
said to a minor or something stupid like that. He
was going on about hacking into like the Scrabble Act
(11:23):
for example, if you pay your Scrabble app, you don't
have to watch the ads. He was saying, you could
hack into it so he doesn't have to pay the ads.
And then he said he got banned from Revolution because
he was hacking into something to do with that, like
like there was a couple of times, you know, he say,
you know, he let me put this app on your phone.
This you know, I think he might went in and
seeing my Google saved passwords. On reflection, it makes more
(11:46):
sense because if he really was a mastermind hacker. I'm
sure he would have retaliated by now. I mean because
he said he's after getting an awful time, you know,
since the podcast, you know this, that and the other. Yeah,
I hope that's true that part. I hope that's the
one thing he's telling the truth about family. My family
are shamed and just that and the other. And you know,
(12:07):
I'm in an awful time and people think this about
me and blah blah blah. They're just like, yeah, but Jarley,
that's exactly we are. We know, we did tell any lawyers.
We have proof about absolutely everything, and we've got most
of the proof. After the podcast, when he got really nasty,
you know, he'd be ringing Monica, like clearly on something
or drunk, I don't know, giving our loads on the phone,
(12:29):
and you could hear his girlfriend's dogs barking in the background,
you know, so he had he's some neck on him
to be ringing ex girlfriends, threatening them wild at his
missus house. I suppose. I don't know why I didn't
question more when he was talking about his amazing abilities.
I don't know. For some reason, I just genuinely believed
(12:49):
absolutely everything that man told me. At the start. Do
I feel silly now? Absolutely? You know. The one thing
I did learn is John is the biggest loser of
all this situation because we're all great friend now and
he has nobody. How lonely would you have to be
to be trying to be befriend all the women that
you screwed over and actually have safety orders against you
and actually hate you like that's a lonely, lonely manly.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
To get their safety orders against John, Linda and Monica
had to go to court in September. By pure coincidence,
John's ex partner, Rita was also due in court that
same day in the very same building for a case
involving their child. It made for quite the waiting room,
John sitting there with three of his ex partners who
(13:33):
were all there because of him.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
My court date for my safety order, because first indeed,
protection order, you have to go to court to clea
your case to get a safety order, and that's put
in place for X amount of years, you know, because
the protection order only covers it until your court date.
So in order for us to get the safety order,
we had to appear in court and testify, and you know,
(13:56):
per case forward and then it's granted or it's denied
one or so. My safety other date was actually the
same day as Monica is, and those days were the
same day as Riche's custody case as well. We all
rocked up the court together and there was John. Oh god,
it was so funny. He was all awkward for the
(14:17):
whole day and we were just sitting there laughing at
you have to sit outside in the waiting area wait
to be called. We were there all the day, and
we were there from half ten in the morning. I
think we all finished up. We wait for each other,
like Monica went first, I went and then reached the
third so I think we were done by maybe half
four or five o'clock I remember correctly. Did you ever
look at somebody and you can tell that they're visibly uncomfortable?
(14:40):
And we were just cackling like three little witches, and
he was sitting there a parallel. Wreck was so good.
It was actually it was a code that moment. I'll
tear that one forever, even because hes and you didn't
deny anything, so he knows exactly how muchy bolocks he
is like, because you would have tried to seek out
from himself otherwise, Like you know, it just so happened.
Was in gory on the in the gym that day,
(15:03):
and he walked down to the courtrooms. When John went in,
he wasn't there, But when John came out, he was there.
My son is an INTERVIEDEO bodybuilder and he does a
lot of you know, he's a big fellow. He's a
big lad. Like you know, he would have shipped bricks
when he's seen him. So he walked straight out, straight
on like and plus Reese's husband was there, so there's
(15:23):
no way he would have tried anything like but he
just looked human. It's about time he got to feel
all the negative emotions that he makes everybody else feel.
It's funny because it was never really about revenge, and
it was just we started this because we wanted to
make other women aware of what he was up to,
because it's really not a nice experience. But I think
(15:45):
the revenge part was just another bonus. I had told
the judge when I was getting the safety order. It
was the same judge when I initially went that I
needed a protector. A protection order. Explained about the podcast.
Now there was a couple of podcasts right okay. You know,
when you're filling out an application to get a safety already,
(16:07):
you have to write basically a description of why and
what kind of danger you feel that you're in, and this,
that and the other. And I had kind of put
some detail in about the podcast and John's reaction, you know,
and that we had audio of him threatening to come
for us. There was lots more questions when Anya went
to get her safety order. Her judge because obviously she's
(16:28):
in a different county, had lots of questions for her
about the podcast. Really a podcast, my god, you know
that kind of thing, like, yeah, obviously he didn't react
well to the podcast. None of us regret doing it, though,
and we are so close now, Like these women are
amazing women, Like you know, they're such good craic they'll
(16:51):
turnal free anytime. They're always there, you know. I have
no regrets about doing the podcast online. I suppose when
we was on there are we doing the same guy pages?
There was a couple of negative comments, which I which
I get, I understand. Most most of the comments were great, like,
you know, people were very supportive and all that kind
of stuff. There was a couple of negative comments which
I completely understand, you know, never do them in a
(17:13):
situation where there's no feelings involved. Looking back on my
reactions to the situation, obviously I am of the same opinion.
What were you thinking? Like just looking at the facts,
But like, I do have to remind myself about the
Hayes I was in because I've forgotten about the Hayes now,
like there's no feelings there anymore. It's different when you
(17:34):
actually have them feelings and you know you're going through this,
you're overlooking to him things because you're still hoping that
the person that you know you fell in love is
still there somewhere and this is all just a misunderstanding.
You know, he'll come back, everything will be great, Like
this can't be true.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
On the are we dating the same guy group, most
of the comments were supportive. People were rightly disgusted by
John's behavior and felt for the women he had hurt,
but not everyone was kind. Some started questioning how they
could have stayed with him so long, or how they
had given him money, especially as single mothers. One anonymous
post in particular hit hard and hit repeatedly. The woman
(18:13):
behind it said the girls had taken no accountability at all.
That they had played a part in what happened. Linda
explains that they had figured out who wrote it, someone
from their Karma group, one of John's exes.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
She was a broad one. She was a bit sketchy
from the start. I think we were a little all
ensure about her, only because she didn't really see him
over John. I suppose it did across our minds where
she's going to go run back and oh John, they're
saying this, that and the other about you. You know,
I'm here for you kind of thing like, but we
actually Carter screenshot and we were having a disagreement of
(18:48):
dispute in the group chat. Everybody was fut their two
cents in and it was getting a little bit ropy.
She screenshot and posted it into the group instead of
or wherever she was meant to post it, and one
of the other girls cop that I had seen as well,
and of course, you know, we challenged her on it,
like why you screen shot this conversation. Well, she flew
(19:09):
off the handle then and left the group. Basically condos
all crazy or whatever. She might have been right, we
were going to look crazy like we were on the mission,
and we all agree to it. At the start in
the mission, everybody knew what the plan was. But then,
as I suppose, when it came to the wire the
podcast and this, that and the other, and then obviously
we had a writer as well who was doing an article,
(19:30):
it got real. And I think it got a bit
too real for someone to you know, which I completely
understand as well. Everybody has different kind of limits and
personalities and what they're winning to put themselves through, which
is fine, like, but this particular girl, Yeah, she screenshot
the conversation and I think we were able to figure out.
Then she got a little bit vexed, I suppose because
we were still rocking on going on with it. And
(19:52):
then yeah, she turned a little bit feral and viole
on us, I suppose. But look at she claims to
youre a woman of God. So so hopefully she'll find
her peace and move off of her life. So she
was on and off and on and off with John.
She was in and around the time where Rita. So
she goes back in years, so she was in between
a couple of different women and overlapping with a couple
(20:13):
of different women. I think she over elected a very
start of Monica's relationship with John as well, if I
remember correctly. I'm not really sure, like why she went
that way, like because she had significant relationships with John,
And maybe it was because there were so many personalities
in this group. Some of these women are they're very strong,
strong women. Most of the women are very strong. Maybe
she kind of because she was one of the last
(20:34):
to joint. Maybe she didn't feel important enough. I don't
know where it went wrong with her, like because she
seemed like a lovely person. She did like and actually
she might be a lovely person. We didn't really get
the chance to know her very well. It was a
very brief engagement with her. She was in and then
she was gone. Kind of gave her two cents and
that was it. Like we weren't sure whether it was
(20:55):
her to start, or whether it was somebody to do
with John's current girlfriend, John's current girlfriend. And then we
were thinking maybe it's one of John's sisters, you know.
So we did tire around with a few things, but
we were eight. There was a comment made, and I
think it was the way it was spelled. A couple
of the words we were able to, you know, kind
of reference it to the spellings in the messages. That
(21:17):
she had been posting in our group and we were
able to figure out was Hurley.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Despite a few nasty comments from strangers online and even
some women in the WhatsApp group, Linda refuses to let
it get to her. She knows exactly why she spoke out.
Her goal was simple to make sure as many women
as possible knew about filthy John from Wexford. Just like
Gorla who we heard from in the last episode.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
He hasn't changed the spots at all. He's still looked
to the same things, lying to women and cheating on women,
robbing from women. I mean this La, it's victim. He
stole all of her medication. I mean ridiculous, he took
her meds. It could have you know, definitely progressed, but
still in the steeling it does martinly took on her.
He still took from her. What she knows he took
is her medication. To be told, discover half of the
(22:00):
stuff he had stolen onto me. Until after the fact,
until I was speaking Tomonica, she happened to be wearing
my son's jumper on our first video call. I was like,
what in the world, And then we had to show
each other all of the property that John had given
us as gifts, and she had loads of my stuff.
I had loads of her stuff. She has one of
my bridesmaids dresses. He gifted her my clothes, like he
(22:23):
gave her a pair of runners that my ex husband
had bought me when I was pregnant with our daughter.
I couldn't wear them because they hurt my feet. They
were never worn outside. There were brand new pink Knight runners.
He gives them to Monica. I didn't even notice they
were gone until she showed me them, and I was like,
I went in, See, I have a spare room in
my house's junk room. I call it where I store things.
(22:44):
And when I went in and had a look at
the amount of stuff this man took from me is ridiculous.
Like when I'm in the bed, he's gone shop and
taking the film on my spare room, Like, yeah, no,
not a bother on him. Monica, overt give me everything back.
But there was a reason most of it was in
there is because there wasn't using it, you know. So
and she was the same with me. I mean we
just said just leave it. I got two scarves back
(23:05):
offer that were gifts, one for my mother, one from
my son. Everything else was like you know, you're your ground,
like you keep them both. She was my My son
was working in a gym at the time, and they
have their logo hoodies. She was wearing one in the
video for her first video call, and I was like,
what the world kitchen appliances, all sorts of stuff belonging
to Monica, Like now it's at forks. He brought down
(23:28):
to my house that he said he got from me,
all monicas, an egg timer, there's an uddy now. He
bought me this ridiculously ugly handbag for Christmas two SHOs
in twenty three. It's actually minging. When I opened it,
I was like, what the Jesus Christ all Mighty is this?
It was so awful that we had when we were
all in the Caramel group together, all the women, we
(23:49):
had a property show and tell who owns this? Who
owns this? And we were trying to get everybody's probably
back to them. Nobody claimed the handbag. It was so ugly,
so I'm stuck with it. I still have it, Like,
but there's even jewelery that he took on only a
gifted to Monica. He gifted me somebody's black blackstone diamond chain.
I don't know who owns that. And also we discovered
as well that he is selling sex toys and give
(24:12):
them to other women, no word of allow. This man
is just incredible. Yeah, he just takes them and brings
them to the next women. Saunder his couple of ones. Right. So,
the most recent one that we have was when when
Monica was recording John and he was unbeknownst, he was
telling her some story about his current girlfriend's wand that
had broken. He obviously took it and totally was going
(24:36):
to fix it, but he actually gifted it to Let Yeah,
till those things like that, like when I first met
you on he brought me a little by when I
when I first met On, when I first started sleeping
with John, he brought me a little bag of goodies,
a goodie bag, and in it was a mini one,
bottle of champagne, a candle, and a few little things
(24:56):
in it. Just the little mini one was clean, look
grand you know or whatever. It turns out that belonged
to an Originally, I didn't question it anyway. I was
just like, oh my god, you're so sweet. Obviously I
was more interested in the champagne. I was like, WHOA,
but bubbly I think. So it never even crossed my
mind that John would have stolen this from another woman
(25:17):
and brought it down to gift it to me, because
by that time I was just madly a love with
John and there was no way he would ever do
that to me. And he was just a perfect man.
He was a perfect man, So it didn't even cross
my mind that this could belong to another woman. We
had a universal sexy jumping vent that night, all went
(25:38):
in the band. We're all at the stage now where
John is a just memory for us. We did what
we did, and we're happy that we did it. The
outcome for us is we have all these new friends,
all these new connections. He has nobody, So that's the
ultimate satisfaction. I've got a place now where I'm really
satisfied with the outcome having all these women, you know,
(26:00):
so it feels like having a little army bind you
when you need them.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Thank you for listening to part six of Filthy John.
Please like, subscribe, and share. The next episode is the
final episode, and we will meet Monica again. If you've
been affected by any of the issues mentioned, please know
that you're not alone. Support is available. Reach out to
Women's Aid or the Dublin Rape Crisis Center for help
(26:27):
and guidance.
You meet a man. He's funny, attentive, he actually listens
to you. You go on a date and you get
home with sore cheeks from laughing. He says all the
right things, wants the same things. It feels easy and rare.
Dates turn into a relationship and you think this is
exactly what you've been looking for. Now imagine discovering everything
(00:23):
he told you was a lie, and you're only one
of many women he has on the go. This is
a story of Filthy John, a compulsive liar, a manipulator,
a man with a serious drug problem, a habit of stealing,
and a dangerous temper. On the surface, he was hilarious, affectionate,
the perfect man. But behind the scenes, he was creating
(00:45):
chaos in multiple women's lives, lying to them, mirroring their personalities,
love bombing, stealing, vanishing, reappearing, and slowly wrecking their sense
of reality. These women didn't just overlap their lives became
tangled in the most bizarre ways. These women didn't just
(01:08):
overlap their lives became tangled in the most bizarre ways.
These women didn't just overlap their lives became tangled in
the most bizarre ways. In this podcast. You'll hear from
five of them, five women brave enough to sit down
and tell their story. There are more, but some of
them are too scared to speak. This is a story
(01:28):
about manipulation, survival, and the power that comes when women
start comparing notes. In this episode, we hear from Linda
for the second time. In her first episode, she shared
the chaos John brought into her life, the thefts, the lies,
the gaslighting about her health that led her to get
hearing aids. She didn't even need the cheating and even
(01:51):
the alleged phone hackings. But this time things are different.
Linda isn't afraid of him anymore. She has taken back
her power and her story now comes from a place
of strength, not fear.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
We recorded the podcast that was grand and Monica was
actually still in touch with John. So when we were
talking to John Starter's mother we'll call her Rita, we
knew there was a pending core case coming up in
terms of their custody arrangement, so we kind of felt
it was important to try and gather as much she
could for for Rita for the for the court case,
(02:29):
just in terms of you know, his drug use is lying,
his cheat and you know his general behavior, especially when
the child is there. What we started, well, Monica initially
started to do was records the phone calls, so we
kept that learning communication open on behalf of Rea and
actually for all of us. We all kind of suppose
when we actually realized who John is, we were all
(02:50):
getting quite a kick out of it because he had
no idea that we were all in touch with each other.
And every time he came up with some of his
Buchet stories, we all knew it was crap like but
then of nowhere. Then, I play a lot of chess
and Scrabble online and tournaments and stuff, and John would
have been aware of this because he used to play
with me as well. But he challenged me to a
(03:11):
game of Scrabble on my app. I sent a screenshots
with the girls and I was like, well, I do
here like and they're like thirily once and I was like,
oh god, So I accepted it. We played against Scrabble,
and of course you can conversate in the game. It
was it was basically him just being John, all of
his gas lighting and crap, the usual stuff. I'm sorry
(03:32):
for everything I messed up. I missh it. Can we
talk on WhatsApp, so I said, yeah, no, but no,
bear in mind, I was fully aware at this stage
of who John was. This is me playing along, you know.
Basically it was just him trying to get me to
drop my pending case against some over the theft of
the dongle, which is still ongoing. Okay, So he was
(03:54):
basically just trying to do John trying to get me
to drop the case. But in the meantime I was
also recording everything and got him to admit to taking
drugs and you know, just all the lies. Oh my god,
like he's he hasn't changed, but he hasn't learned one thing,
not one thing. He's still the very same. The wife
I talk is the only thing I can prove that
(04:16):
he took only because Monica believe it or now, because
he sent her a picture and the dongles in the picture,
and that was months after the fact that he told
me he didn't take it, and it's a picture of
it in his house. So that's that's the only thing
I can approved that he took because obviously I'm going
to regards about all my property when I found out
just the level of test, you know, and so that's
(04:39):
still ongoing at the moment, so it's pending. Still went
in this very slow process. My plan is to still
put fire ahead with that and pushed it as far
as I can if nothing comes with it. And nothing
comes with it, but it would be great to hold
him accountable for his actions as well. When I got
back to talking to him, I said to him, See,
Anya and I at the time worked within a close
proximity to each other, literally across the road from each other,
(05:02):
so he didn't know that, my selven on, you knew
each other. And I said to him, I see this lovely,
lovely woman in a little cafe near my job from
time to time. It's just your friend Anya. Now, he
had always said Anya was just a friend who was
never in a relationship with Anya. You know, she's an
old friend his this, that and the other. And I
was like, and he goes, yeah, yeah, she probably was
(05:23):
because she lives close. And I was I was saying,
I was thinking about saying hello to her, and he goes,
he was calling my bluffy, Yeah, you're sure, she's very friendly.
So I met Anya one day for a coffee in
the restaurant close to where we work and said to him,
a selfie of me and her, and I said, just
had a very interesting conversation with this lovely lady, and
(05:44):
he said, I bet you did. So that's when that
was me letting him know I know about all the
all the lies, and now Onye does two.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
When John found out about the podcast, he didn't take
it well. In true John fashion, he lashed out, angry, defensive,
and desperate to regain control. Monica took the brunt of it,
receiving a stream of messages and abuse. But what John
didn't realize was that he was only digging himself in deeper.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
He hit the roof. He went absolutely mental, and Monica
managed to capture this as well in a recording where
he was trending to come for me Anya and or
if she didn't take down the podcast. He got very nasty,
very nasty. So obviously the guards got involved, so and myself,
Anya and Monica where were granted protection orders, pending safety orders.
(06:33):
He didn't really seem to care. He came hard and heavy,
especially to Monica, with the threats, a threat of violence,
threatening to come into her house, and you know, really
really going out as a way to intimidate her. I
wasn't really in a bad situation because John is very
aware that I have an adult son and I have
an adult brother that lives across the road for me
as well, so he'd never get away with that come
(06:55):
into my house like, but Monica was way more vulnerable,
you know, I have to say. As bad as he
was with all the threats, the women were amazing. Everybody
rallied around Monarch in particular because she was closest to
him and she was the most vulnerable. Even Rita hit
the mother of his child and her her husband, you know,
offering to go up and stay with her and I
(07:15):
you know, she, you know, everybody we all looked after
each other, you know, because we were scared, you know,
we were you know, he can be horrible, horrible man.
Myself and Monica in particular, we actually we have a
nice where we you know, we would meet up and
have a good few drinks. During that stage where John
wasn't aware of what is going on, he kept ringing
(07:35):
Monica and I'd be there in the background, and he
didn't know, like the shity be coming out with like,
you know, pure and utter lies, making fun of his
current girlfriend, going on about her tattoo, calling her crazy
forgetting the tattoo and all. His current girlfriend is one
of the women that I was told when I met
up with Rita about so I think he's with with
(07:56):
her a long time, you know, on and offer with
other women and her. I'm not really sure of the
dynamic obviously, because she we tried to, we tried to
reach out and help her, but she wasn't interested. You know,
he was on He was on a call to Monica
making fun of her for doing that, you know, basically
kind of put across that she was sad for doing
that and this and the other, and apparently she had
(08:17):
sent him a picture of an a gage ring and all,
and he was basically just poking fun at her, saying, Monica,
how do I get out of this situation? And all
this kind of stuff, And of course Monic was just
pissing himself laugh and I was actually on the floor
beside her laughing because he didn't even know he was there,
Like but like this he's still doing this thing to women,
like when there was way to make his current girlfriend
(08:37):
sounded like an absolute crazy noo case, like you know,
to try and keep Monica sweet. But he wasn't aware,
you know that like we were totally onto him, like
we know everything. He's just when I was recording him
secretly when when he was ringing me after the scrabble
of the game, I was trying to get as much
information out him as possible, and I was saying, he said,
(08:58):
ask me anything and I'll tell you the true And
I was like, were you in a relationship with Monica
when I was in a relationship here? No, honest to god, no,
my gods, it was absolutely not blah blah blah. You know.
So he was still lying about everything, like me and
the girls are listening to the recordings that or so
we were like, what's actually wrong with Emily? But I
have to tell you, I quite enjoyed, you know, being
(09:18):
in the drive and see in that situation for a while.
I secretly really enjoy it, you know, having that one
up on him for a change, you know, you know,
after everything that he had put Metro, it was nice
for him to feel like the idiot in this situation.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
At the start of twenty twenty five, as more and
more women began connecting and realizing their shared experiences, Monica
decided to set up a WhatsApp group called Karma. It
became a safe space where everyone could talk openly about
what had happened with John. At one point there were
twelve women in the group, most with their own version
of the sorry story.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Just as the podcast we were getting ready to they
were getting released. It was a bit of a follow
on with all the ladies. Now, when I say I
follow I suppose it wasn't an argument as such. It
was just a couple of the women got spooked because
I suppose they were scared of John's reaction. You know,
one saw this came out, they were worried they were
(10:17):
going to get dragged into it. So there was a
little bit of a divide down the middle there, which
was unfortunate because all of the ladies are so lovely
and I don't blame them for being afraid. I suppose
the more we jug into the situation and really found
out who John is, the less scary he became. Like
he's so full of shit. It's might even funny now
that I'm in the situation that I am, and I
(10:38):
know who John is, looking back on my previous behavior,
how I reacted, you know, if he was upset and
this set and the other I really disappointed at myself
because he's just a fucking age Like, there's nothing special
about John. He has no hidden talents in terms of
hacking stuff. He just convinced me that he was just
really good at all this stuff, and he's not. He
(11:00):
did send me my passwords when when we were breaking up,
but he had told me stories about being able to
hack other people's accounts and find information. And he had
a guard friend named Pat. He had hacked into some
girls snapchat to delete the chat history because his guard
apparently was going to be in trouble for something he
said to a minor or something stupid like that. He
was going on about hacking into like the Scrabble Act
(11:23):
for example, if you pay your Scrabble app, you don't
have to watch the ads. He was saying, you could
hack into it so he doesn't have to pay the ads.
And then he said he got banned from Revolution because
he was hacking into something to do with that, like
like there was a couple of times, you know, he say,
you know, he let me put this app on your phone.
This you know, I think he might went in and
seeing my Google saved passwords. On reflection, it makes more
(11:46):
sense because if he really was a mastermind hacker. I'm
sure he would have retaliated by now. I mean because
he said he's after getting an awful time, you know,
since the podcast, you know this, that and the other. Yeah,
I hope that's true that part. I hope that's the
one thing he's telling the truth about family. My family
are shamed and just that and the other. And you know,
(12:07):
I'm in an awful time and people think this about
me and blah blah blah. They're just like, yeah, but Jarley,
that's exactly we are. We know, we did tell any lawyers.
We have proof about absolutely everything, and we've got most
of the proof. After the podcast, when he got really nasty,
you know, he'd be ringing Monica, like clearly on something
or drunk, I don't know, giving our loads on the phone,
(12:29):
and you could hear his girlfriend's dogs barking in the background,
you know, so he had he's some neck on him
to be ringing ex girlfriends, threatening them wild at his
missus house. I suppose. I don't know why I didn't
question more when he was talking about his amazing abilities.
I don't know. For some reason, I just genuinely believed
(12:49):
absolutely everything that man told me. At the start. Do
I feel silly now? Absolutely? You know. The one thing
I did learn is John is the biggest loser of
all this situation because we're all great friend now and
he has nobody. How lonely would you have to be
to be trying to be befriend all the women that
you screwed over and actually have safety orders against you
and actually hate you like that's a lonely, lonely manly.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
To get their safety orders against John, Linda and Monica
had to go to court in September. By pure coincidence,
John's ex partner, Rita was also due in court that
same day in the very same building for a case
involving their child. It made for quite the waiting room,
John sitting there with three of his ex partners who
(13:33):
were all there because of him.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
My court date for my safety order, because first indeed,
protection order, you have to go to court to clea
your case to get a safety order, and that's put
in place for X amount of years, you know, because
the protection order only covers it until your court date.
So in order for us to get the safety order,
we had to appear in court and testify, and you know,
(13:56):
per case forward and then it's granted or it's denied
one or so. My safety other date was actually the
same day as Monica is, and those days were the
same day as Riche's custody case as well. We all
rocked up the court together and there was John. Oh god,
it was so funny. He was all awkward for the
(14:17):
whole day and we were just sitting there laughing at
you have to sit outside in the waiting area wait
to be called. We were there all the day, and
we were there from half ten in the morning. I
think we all finished up. We wait for each other,
like Monica went first, I went and then reached the
third so I think we were done by maybe half
four or five o'clock I remember correctly. Did you ever
look at somebody and you can tell that they're visibly uncomfortable?
(14:40):
And we were just cackling like three little witches, and
he was sitting there a parallel. Wreck was so good.
It was actually it was a code that moment. I'll
tear that one forever, even because hes and you didn't
deny anything, so he knows exactly how muchy bolocks he
is like, because you would have tried to seek out
from himself otherwise, Like you know, it just so happened.
Was in gory on the in the gym that day,
(15:03):
and he walked down to the courtrooms. When John went in,
he wasn't there, But when John came out, he was there.
My son is an INTERVIEDEO bodybuilder and he does a
lot of you know, he's a big fellow. He's a
big lad. Like you know, he would have shipped bricks
when he's seen him. So he walked straight out, straight
on like and plus Reese's husband was there, so there's
(15:23):
no way he would have tried anything like but he
just looked human. It's about time he got to feel
all the negative emotions that he makes everybody else feel.
It's funny because it was never really about revenge, and
it was just we started this because we wanted to
make other women aware of what he was up to,
because it's really not a nice experience. But I think
(15:45):
the revenge part was just another bonus. I had told
the judge when I was getting the safety order. It
was the same judge when I initially went that I
needed a protector. A protection order. Explained about the podcast.
Now there was a couple of podcasts right okay. You know,
when you're filling out an application to get a safety already,
(16:07):
you have to write basically a description of why and
what kind of danger you feel that you're in, and this,
that and the other. And I had kind of put
some detail in about the podcast and John's reaction, you know,
and that we had audio of him threatening to come
for us. There was lots more questions when Anya went
to get her safety order. Her judge because obviously she's
(16:28):
in a different county, had lots of questions for her
about the podcast. Really a podcast, my god, you know
that kind of thing, like, yeah, obviously he didn't react
well to the podcast. None of us regret doing it, though,
and we are so close now, Like these women are
amazing women, Like you know, they're such good craic they'll
(16:51):
turnal free anytime. They're always there, you know. I have
no regrets about doing the podcast online. I suppose when
we was on there are we doing the same guy pages?
There was a couple of negative comments, which I which
I get, I understand. Most most of the comments were great, like,
you know, people were very supportive and all that kind
of stuff. There was a couple of negative comments which
I completely understand, you know, never do them in a
(17:13):
situation where there's no feelings involved. Looking back on my
reactions to the situation, obviously I am of the same opinion.
What were you thinking? Like just looking at the facts,
But like, I do have to remind myself about the
Hayes I was in because I've forgotten about the Hayes now,
like there's no feelings there anymore. It's different when you
(17:34):
actually have them feelings and you know you're going through this,
you're overlooking to him things because you're still hoping that
the person that you know you fell in love is
still there somewhere and this is all just a misunderstanding.
You know, he'll come back, everything will be great, Like
this can't be true.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
On the are we dating the same guy group, most
of the comments were supportive. People were rightly disgusted by
John's behavior and felt for the women he had hurt,
but not everyone was kind. Some started questioning how they
could have stayed with him so long, or how they
had given him money, especially as single mothers. One anonymous
post in particular hit hard and hit repeatedly. The woman
(18:13):
behind it said the girls had taken no accountability at all.
That they had played a part in what happened. Linda
explains that they had figured out who wrote it, someone
from their Karma group, one of John's exes.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
She was a broad one. She was a bit sketchy
from the start. I think we were a little all
ensure about her, only because she didn't really see him
over John. I suppose it did across our minds where
she's going to go run back and oh John, they're
saying this, that and the other about you. You know,
I'm here for you kind of thing like, but we
actually Carter screenshot and we were having a disagreement of
(18:48):
dispute in the group chat. Everybody was fut their two
cents in and it was getting a little bit ropy.
She screenshot and posted it into the group instead of
or wherever she was meant to post it, and one
of the other girls cop that I had seen as well,
and of course, you know, we challenged her on it,
like why you screen shot this conversation. Well, she flew
(19:09):
off the handle then and left the group. Basically condos
all crazy or whatever. She might have been right, we
were going to look crazy like we were on the mission,
and we all agree to it. At the start in
the mission, everybody knew what the plan was. But then,
as I suppose, when it came to the wire the
podcast and this, that and the other, and then obviously
we had a writer as well who was doing an article,
(19:30):
it got real. And I think it got a bit
too real for someone to you know, which I completely
understand as well. Everybody has different kind of limits and
personalities and what they're winning to put themselves through, which
is fine, like, but this particular girl, Yeah, she screenshot
the conversation and I think we were able to figure out.
Then she got a little bit vexed, I suppose because
we were still rocking on going on with it. And
(19:52):
then yeah, she turned a little bit feral and viole
on us, I suppose. But look at she claims to
youre a woman of God. So so hopefully she'll find
her peace and move off of her life. So she
was on and off and on and off with John.
She was in and around the time where Rita. So
she goes back in years, so she was in between
a couple of different women and overlapping with a couple
(20:13):
of different women. I think she over elected a very
start of Monica's relationship with John as well, if I
remember correctly. I'm not really sure, like why she went
that way, like because she had significant relationships with John,
And maybe it was because there were so many personalities
in this group. Some of these women are they're very strong,
strong women. Most of the women are very strong. Maybe
she kind of because she was one of the last
(20:34):
to joint. Maybe she didn't feel important enough. I don't
know where it went wrong with her, like because she
seemed like a lovely person. She did like and actually
she might be a lovely person. We didn't really get
the chance to know her very well. It was a
very brief engagement with her. She was in and then
she was gone. Kind of gave her two cents and
that was it. Like we weren't sure whether it was
(20:55):
her to start, or whether it was somebody to do
with John's current girlfriend, John's current girlfriend. And then we
were thinking maybe it's one of John's sisters, you know.
So we did tire around with a few things, but
we were eight. There was a comment made, and I
think it was the way it was spelled. A couple
of the words we were able to, you know, kind
of reference it to the spellings in the messages. That
(21:17):
she had been posting in our group and we were
able to figure out was Hurley.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Despite a few nasty comments from strangers online and even
some women in the WhatsApp group, Linda refuses to let
it get to her. She knows exactly why she spoke out.
Her goal was simple to make sure as many women
as possible knew about filthy John from Wexford. Just like
Gorla who we heard from in the last episode.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
He hasn't changed the spots at all. He's still looked
to the same things, lying to women and cheating on women,
robbing from women. I mean this La, it's victim. He
stole all of her medication. I mean ridiculous, he took
her meds. It could have you know, definitely progressed, but
still in the steeling it does martinly took on her.
He still took from her. What she knows he took
is her medication. To be told, discover half of the
(22:00):
stuff he had stolen onto me. Until after the fact,
until I was speaking Tomonica, she happened to be wearing
my son's jumper on our first video call. I was like,
what in the world, And then we had to show
each other all of the property that John had given
us as gifts, and she had loads of my stuff.
I had loads of her stuff. She has one of
my bridesmaids dresses. He gifted her my clothes, like he
(22:23):
gave her a pair of runners that my ex husband
had bought me when I was pregnant with our daughter.
I couldn't wear them because they hurt my feet. They
were never worn outside. There were brand new pink Knight runners.
He gives them to Monica. I didn't even notice they
were gone until she showed me them, and I was like,
I went in, See, I have a spare room in
my house's junk room. I call it where I store things.
(22:44):
And when I went in and had a look at
the amount of stuff this man took from me is ridiculous.
Like when I'm in the bed, he's gone shop and
taking the film on my spare room, Like, yeah, no,
not a bother on him. Monica, overt give me everything back.
But there was a reason most of it was in
there is because there wasn't using it, you know. So
and she was the same with me. I mean we
just said just leave it. I got two scarves back
(23:05):
offer that were gifts, one for my mother, one from
my son. Everything else was like you know, you're your ground,
like you keep them both. She was my My son
was working in a gym at the time, and they
have their logo hoodies. She was wearing one in the
video for her first video call, and I was like,
what the world kitchen appliances, all sorts of stuff belonging
to Monica, Like now it's at forks. He brought down
(23:28):
to my house that he said he got from me,
all monicas, an egg timer, there's an uddy now. He
bought me this ridiculously ugly handbag for Christmas two SHOs
in twenty three. It's actually minging. When I opened it,
I was like, what the Jesus Christ all Mighty is this?
It was so awful that we had when we were
all in the Caramel group together, all the women, we
(23:49):
had a property show and tell who owns this? Who
owns this? And we were trying to get everybody's probably
back to them. Nobody claimed the handbag. It was so ugly,
so I'm stuck with it. I still have it, Like,
but there's even jewelery that he took on only a
gifted to Monica. He gifted me somebody's black blackstone diamond chain.
I don't know who owns that. And also we discovered
as well that he is selling sex toys and give
(24:12):
them to other women, no word of allow. This man
is just incredible. Yeah, he just takes them and brings
them to the next women. Saunder his couple of ones. Right. So,
the most recent one that we have was when when
Monica was recording John and he was unbeknownst, he was
telling her some story about his current girlfriend's wand that
had broken. He obviously took it and totally was going
(24:36):
to fix it, but he actually gifted it to Let Yeah,
till those things like that, like when I first met
you on he brought me a little by when I
when I first met On, when I first started sleeping
with John, he brought me a little bag of goodies,
a goodie bag, and in it was a mini one,
bottle of champagne, a candle, and a few little things
(24:56):
in it. Just the little mini one was clean, look
grand you know or whatever. It turns out that belonged
to an Originally, I didn't question it anyway. I was
just like, oh my god, you're so sweet. Obviously I
was more interested in the champagne. I was like, WHOA,
but bubbly I think. So it never even crossed my
mind that John would have stolen this from another woman
(25:17):
and brought it down to gift it to me, because
by that time I was just madly a love with
John and there was no way he would ever do
that to me. And he was just a perfect man.
He was a perfect man, So it didn't even cross
my mind that this could belong to another woman. We
had a universal sexy jumping vent that night, all went
(25:38):
in the band. We're all at the stage now where
John is a just memory for us. We did what
we did, and we're happy that we did it. The
outcome for us is we have all these new friends,
all these new connections. He has nobody, So that's the
ultimate satisfaction. I've got a place now where I'm really
satisfied with the outcome having all these women, you know,
(26:00):
so it feels like having a little army bind you
when you need them.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Thank you for listening to part six of Filthy John.
Please like, subscribe, and share. The next episode is the
final episode, and we will meet Monica again. If you've
been affected by any of the issues mentioned, please know
that you're not alone. Support is available. Reach out to
Women's Aid or the Dublin Rape Crisis Center for help
(26:27):
and guidance.
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