Real and virtual chase for Second Life divorce couple

Reporters won trust in cyberspace of pair reluctant to talk to actual press

It was a story that unfolded in two very different venues. Half of it took place in a Cornish seaside resort - an old-fashioned media footrace for a decent story.

But the other half was played out in cyberspace as virtual reporters picked their way through imagined streets and clubs and homes to try to gather how an indiscretion there had led to a real life marriage break-up.

The story of how Newquay couple Amy Taylor and David Pollard broke up after she caught his alter ego cheating on her in the virtual world Second Life has already made headlines.

The couple are divorcing and Pollard is engaged to his online partner's real-life counterpart, a woman from Arkansas, America, called Linda Brinkle, even though they have not met.

But the story behind the story is as bizarre, and will no doubt make reporters sit up and try to work out how they can hunt for equally odd tales unfolding in computer-generated worlds.

To recap, Taylor and Pollard got together after meeting in an internet chatroom. They began to play Second Life, the interactive computer game in which enthusiasts adopt alter egos - or avatars - and lead fantastical lives.

In Second Life, Taylor, who is unemployed, became club DJ Laura Skye. Pollard, also unemployed, was nightclub owner Dave Barmy who lives in a church and travels in a helicopter gunship.

Barmy cheated on Skye, with one of the many sex workers in Second Life. Back in real life, Taylor was upset but gave him a second chance. But when she found Barmy with another cyberwoman, Modesty McDonnell, it was too much. She left him and the couple - in real life - are to be divorced.

The chase for the real couple began after the story broke on a satellite news channel. Reporters were despatched to Newquay to interview Taylor and Pollard. The pair, who were living in separate digs in the town, were reluctant to speak to journalists.

Fortunately for the pack, their avatars were less coy. While flesh and blood reporters and photographers banged on the door of the pair's real homes, virtual ones were trying to doorstep Laura Skye and Dave Barmy in Second Life.

The two that found them were Jashley Gothley, snug-fitting T-shirts and black trousers, and Meggy Paulse, red mini-skirt and a black slip top.

Both were avatars of journalists for the press agency South West News. So while Taylor was refusing to answer her real door to real reporters, her avatar, Skye, was being won over by Paulse.

Jo Pickering, one of the South West News staff who "controlled" Paulse, said: "In real life [Taylor] had rejected everything - knocks on the door, letters, phone calls. But our characters started chatting and it was different. She began to trust us. Amy's character was much more confident in the game than she was in real life."

Meanwhile, Gothley was tailing it after Barmy. Real reporter Paul Adcock admitted that his character got the run around from Barmy because he was a novice in the ways of Second Life. But Barmy eventually invited Gothley to meet him in the church he lives in.

Adcock said: "It was difficult sometimes because there was a blurring between reality and Second Life." Barmy also turned out to be more confident than Pollard. "We spoke later on the phone and he was much more awkward than in the game," said Adcock.

Barmy was even persuaded to bring his new girlfriend, McDonnell, to meet Gothley. Barmy and McDonnell - now very much in love - posed together for photographs, which were grabbed from the computer by South West News's deputy picture editor, Jon Mills.

Pickering said she understood why Taylor had felt so rejected in real life. "She had created this perfect version of herself, and even that wasn't good enough for him," she said.

After much bargaining the South West News, and its avatars, hatched a buy up in real life with Taylor and Pollard. But the pair also agreed to tell their stories in detail to a tabloid newspaper yesterday for real money.

Taylor says she is better off without Pollard, and he is hoping to use the money from the tabloid deal to fly out to see his American fiancee. And South West News is looking at opening an online bureau in Second Life.

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