A concerned mother’s Facebook post spread like wildfire earlier this week, Antoinette Dyers seeing her message shared more than 28 000 times before she eventually removed it.

She wasn’t the only parent concerned about a mysterious blonde woman taking photos of her children – you can read some eyewitness accounts in our story from Tuesday HERE.

Now the blonde woman at the centre of the controversy, accused of photographing children as part of a kidnapping ring, has spoken out. Below from IOL:

In a lengthy message posted on the Strand, Gordon’s Bay, Somerset West community Facebook page on Tuesday, the blonde woman, who claims to be a street photographer, says she was shopping in Somerset Mall when she started taking photos of the sun streaming through the roof.

“I took photos of the ceiling and any people at the bottom of the frames looked like matchstick men in silhouette,” reads her post.

She then took shots of a young boy fooling around with his sister.

“The next thing this woman with a pushchair came screaming over to me, her sister behind her also screaming and shouting, that I was a child kidnapper, taking photos of children,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it!”

She was “interrogated by Mall Management” before two police officers took her to the police station where she was “grilled” and her house searched before she was released.

The next day she was informed of the Facebook post that had gone viral, and was advised to open a case of slander.

While in a shop she was once again approached by a cop and taken to the police station.

“…on the way, driving, I heard a report about a woman claiming to be a street photographer being one of a syndicate that was kidnapping children in the Strand area. It was on 567 by the way,” she added.

Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirmed that her residence had been searched, and also offered some sage advice on social media use:

“People should refrain from posting pictures or make serious allegations of people unless they are found guilty in a court of law. It is best to first bring such information under the attention of police before attempting to place such information on social media”.

The age old ‘think before you post’, advice that comes a little late for folks like Penny Sparrow and Matthew Theunissen.

[source:iol]