Shortcut: The Online Sextortion of Mac Holdsworth

Meshel Laurie (0:00)

The following podcast contains accounts of child sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised.

This is Australian True Crime with Meshel Laurie. In 2022, teenager Mac Holdsworth was the victim of an online sexual extortion scam. A stranger posing as a teenage girl convinced Mac to send a nude photo, then threatened to share it with his friends and family unless he paid. The results of that night were catastrophic.

Mac's father, Wayne Holdsworth, has since dedicated himself to telling Mac's story. He founded SmackTalk, a charity focused on suicide prevention and online safety, and now works to educate young people, parents and communities about the dangers of online sexual extortion. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.

Wayne Holdsworth (1:01)

Mac was, when he was growing up, when he was in primary school, loved sport. He loved his mates. He would go to school, not for school, but for his mates and lunchtime to kick the footy, to play basketball particularly. And he loved the camaraderie. When he became a bit older, he continued to play basketball and footy. They were his two go-tos. He didn't like school that much, except again for the camaraderie in secondary college.

But then he wanted to do an apprenticeship. It was about that same time that he got sexually extorted. It was nearly 16, 15, turning 16

And it was at that point that he changed significantly.

Meshel Laurie (1:47)

So you noticed something was wrong.

Wayne Holdsworth (1:49)

Yeah, straight away. And I noticed that he became introverted, he became withdrawn, he wouldn't come out of his room often, like for long periods of time. And I'd knock and I'd say, is everything all right, mate? I'm fine, dad.

Meshel Laurie (2:04)

What happened on that night when he was in his room with the door shut?

Wayne Holdsworth (2:07)

He was online for 30 minutes. And within 30 minutes, he met who he thought was an 18-year-old woman. And in eight minutes of meeting her, she had shared a nude picture of herself and her face and encouraged Mac to do the same. The knucklehead did straight away. Because I've seen some of the transcripts.

She said to him, what do you do? And he said, I play footy. She said, oh, you must have big biceps. You must have abs.

Have you thought about doing any advertising like television and that sort of stuff, building him up? And he was easily, he succumbed to that. And he sent the photo of several photos of his face and his nude body.

One was quite intimate, thinking that this is going to be good. But as soon as he did that communication cease, there was nothing from her. But the phone rang and he looked down at the number. He didn't recognize it. So he thought it was the 18-year-old woman. So he picked up excitedly thinking, here we go. We've got something going on here. And picked it up. But it wasn't the 18-year-old woman. It was a 47-year-old man from Liverpool, New South Wales called Min Try Do.

And he said to my boy, 15 he was then, that I've got your pictures. I've hacked into your account. Here are some of the addresses, one of which was mine. If you don't send me $500 into this bank account within three minutes, I'm sending the picture out.

Meshel Laurie (3:42)

To everyone in your e-mail, everyone he'd hacked into.

SPEAKER_3 (3:45)

In your address book.

Wayne Holdsworth (3:47)

And so Mac panicked. He had to go to footy training. The next night, his captain had to go to footy training thinking, oh, if these boys see that photo, they're going to be really hanging it on me. And so he sent him $500. He had $500, sent it, thinking the deal was done. Yeah. And I talk about this with students all the time. You don't do deals with terrorists ever. Yeah. They can't be trusted. They're not worthy.

The only thing they value is money, not you.

Meshel Laurie (4:12)

And the only weapon they have is your shame.

Wayne Holdsworth (4:15)

Yes. And embarrassment.

Meshel Laurie (4:16)

Yeah.

Wayne Holdsworth (4:17)

That's the only weapon they have. Yeah. But for boys particularly, they're impulsive and they worry so much about that, typically. And so thinking the deal was done, sure, he escaped the bullet, but the phone rang again after a few minutes. A few minutes? Yeah, a few minutes and said, I've got your $500.

I want another $500 into the same bank account. And if you don't send it, I'll send those pictures out. And if I send those pictures out, your mum and dad will hate you and you'll want to kill yourself. We got half that right because we'll always love him. Yeah. And so he didn't have another $500. So he came in to me and he said, Hey dad, and he told me. Tell him the whole thing? Yeah. Thinking that I might get a little bit, you know, terse with him, but I didn't. I put my arms around him and said, Hey mate, you're the victim here. I didn't know much about extortion, sexual extortion. I knew about extortion, but I thought I was well-read, but I have obviously not. And so I was hugging him and he was quite a resilient boy, but I could feel the moisture on my shoulder. I knew he'd been crying and I said to him, we're in this together, mate. And as we were hugging, he had his phone in his hand and it started ringing, vibrating. He looked down and said, oh, daddy's on the phone again. Can you talk to him? Talk to him out of this. He said, yeah, give me a go, mate. So I took the phone and I don't swear very much, but I did that night. I bet.