by Chris Griffith
Published in The Sunday Mail
New details in Australia of the scams run by the man dubbed Ron the Con have emerged following his arrest in St Louis, Missouri, on fraud charges.
Last week The Sunday Mail learnt that while Frederick was operating ill-fated camera franchise operations on the Gold Coast, he also ran a nude photography studio at Southport where he attracted models and street kids to pose for naked photos.
Donna, a 30-year-old Brisbane exotic dancer, said she answered a newspaper ad placed by Frederick in January who wanted models for a new adult magazine.
This was shortly before Frederick married Susan Maree McLeod and disappeared to the United States. Donna, who asked her surname not be printed, said she booked an appointment with Frederick's secretary, a woman aged about 24 of Asian appearance named Ruby.
After filling in an application form, she visited Frederick's studio labelled by a painted sign ``Randy Man'' at Nin Street Southport for what she believed was a portfolio shoot.
She said the two-room office looked as if had been furnished in a hurry.
``It had a couple of pictures on the wall and a desk and a couple of chairs. They had another room and that's where they took all the photos. It had a bed, a massage table, pillows and a table _ props for the porn scenes.''
She said a young girl, 17 or possibly less, was leaving from a photo shoot as she entered.
``Ruby said she'd had quite a few runaways trying to get a few bucks to feed themselves.''
Donna said Frederick claimed he was producing two adult magazines _ ``Randy Man'' for younger men and ``Target Magazine'' for older ones. He had just started the magazine here, but it was in production overseas.
``He showed me the magazines. They looked like they had been properly printed. But later I discovered no one in the industry here had heard of them.''
She said Frederick watched as his photographer friend snapped her first in lingerie then took nude shots for what she believed was a personal portfolio.
``Frederick would say: `That shot, it's Penthouse material.' I'd think: `You've got to be kidding'' But she left after the photographer began ``zooming in'' with his lens.
Donna said she could not get copies of her photos and the Randy Man office had closed by early March. Nor was she paid $500 to $1000 for the shoot as promised.
She said she was concerned for herself and other girls whose supposedly private portfolio shots may have been sold and distributed oversees or placed on the Internet by Frederick.
Yesterday Frederick's US girlfriend said she had seen some of Frederick's portfolio's of women among dozens of explicit photos he left behind in St Louis. Many of these had featured himself.