The spotty, blue-eyed boy even tried to make Eric, his old-fashioned first name, sound more glamorous. Out of his home, he wanted to fit in at Charlottetown Junior School in the sprawling Toronto suburb of Scarborough.īut the few classmates who remember him say they used to laugh at the tall tales he told. Beatings were common and Eric – the eldest of three – took the brunt of his grandmother’s temper. His parents – Anna Yourkin and Donald Newman – were just teenagers when he was born and they split up soon after.Įric was then brought up mainly by his domineering granny Phyllis Yourkin. His upbringing was certainly brutal – and at least one of his relatives always suspected there was something seriously wrong.Īn aunt, who asked not to be identified, said: “He is a nut job – he was a time bomb waiting to explode.” Investigators are now trying to unravel his sick fantasy world, which began in the Toronto suburbs where Eric grew up – and also spread to Wembley, North London.
The victim’s hands and feet were even posted to politicians and schools in his native Canada.Īfter a massive worldwide manhunt, he was finally arrested in a Berlin internet cafe on Monday.Īccording to reports, he was reading online accounts of his alleged crimes at the time.
