THE Internet has offered many benefits to everyone and really opened up our world.

But with all the positives, there are negatives, and one of those is exposing us to a far greater number of dangerous people.

Stewart Shaw was just one of those people. And, tragically for Julie Sudlow, she found out just how lethal he was.

The couple met on the social networking site, Facebook.

Again, overall it has been a force for good, keeping many thousands of people in touch when they have drifted apart over time.

Yet it is how the couple met and became interested in one another.

The problem is that online, more so than in person, someone can create a persona for themselves that masks the dark aspects of their make-up and draws in their intended target.

Of course, Mrs Sudlow and Shaw could have met in a pub.

But with the greater number of people you meet online comes the larger number of those who are dangerous.

Shaw was a cunning and manipulative man – he was able to convince Mrs Shaw to meet him again despite his attack on her.

It is another example that you must be vigilant about those lurking in the cyberworld because the image they portray may be far from the truth.