Kelly Ryan

**Kelly Ryan** (b. 1989) was a resident of Pleasant Green. She moved into the village with her parents, Robert and Claire Ryan, just before John Grant's nuisance campaign, Operation Pleasant Green.

## Moving to Pleasant Green

From the recordings made by John Grant, it is clear that Kelly Ryan was unhappy with the move her family made from central London into the countryside. Her father was quick to anger and her mother continued to impose a number of house rules that Kelly resented, being 18 years old by this time.

Soon after the Ryans moved into Pleasant Green, a number of unusual events started to occur that were later found to be perpetrated by retired Major John Grant. Grant was unhappy with the breakdown of community in the village, brought about by the sort of migration from the city that the Ryans represented.

## Joining Grant

On 31st July 2007, while sneaking out for a cigarette, Kelly spotted Grant using a low-frequency transmitter to activate car alarms remotely. She confronted him two days later but instead of reporting his activities to the authorities, she found the cause for his nuisance campaign resonated with her and they started to work together.

With Ryan's help, Grant's activities escalated and over the next few days they vandalised the local cricket green, the golf club building, smashed windows of cars and poured paint inside, and set hedges alight. Something else that Kelly did during this partnership was to anonymously send her mother photos of her father with his mistress. She did this in an attempt "*to free [Claire] from the prison that her life had become*". However, she was somewhat pragmatic when her mother divorced but then remarried a man exactly like her father, reasoning that "*an animal raised in captivity can't survive in the wild.*"

Ryan and Grant's partnership came to an abrupt end when Ryan plotted with Grant to take credit for his suicide. On 15th September 2007, Grant shot himself and died soon afterwards. Their initial plan was for Ryan to claim responsibility for his murder in an effort to further shock the residents of the village. However, Grant reneged on this arrangement and left a final confession, admitting responsibility for his own death and exonerating Kelly Ryan of any guilt. Despite this, Ryan was so committed to Grant's cause that, after his death, she located and hid Grant's confession.

## Admitting guilt

After Grant's death, Kelly Ryan was taken into custody and charged with his murder. She was interviewed by police officers, DI Michael Carter and DS William Haynes. She was antagonist with the policemen, sometimes appearing to enjoy winding them up and seeming unusually calm during her interviews. She confused them by not denying the conclusion they'd drawn - that she'd murdered Grant - but only obliquely confessing to it. She encouraged the men to listen to Grant's tapes, his manifesto of sorts, in the hopes that their efforts would be understood by others.

Ultimately, Ryan served 18 months for manslaughter due to diminished capacity and was then relocated and provided a new identity. A recording she made after being released from prison indicated that she remained a firm believer in the goals of Operation Pleasant Green and had no regrets about any of her actions up to that point.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Fragments"