(continuation of extract from from Tim Jordan's book Cyberpower)

But someone worked out which hospital Julie should have been in and called - no Julie had been in the hospital. Slowly at first and then quickly, Julie's online persona unravelled. In place of an atheistic, sexually alive (even predatory), dope-smoking, hard-drinking, flamboyant female, disabled neuropsychologist, there was a conservative, Jewish, tee-total, drug-fearing, low-key, sexually awkward, male, able-bodied psychiatrist. Sanford, who had been typing Julie all along, replaced Julie.

Sanford had once joined online conversations with the self-chosen pseudonym of Doctor. He had then had an intimate private conversation online with a woman, during which he realised the woman thought he was a female psychiatrist. He found a depth of emotional conversation he claimed he had always missed with women. He then created an online female who offered the greatest chance of not being detected and Julie was born.

When Julie became sick...