Eric Welthorpe (primary avatar right)
‘Eric’ was an off-line creation who used to write to various publications. He started as a close relative to Joe Orton‘s Edna Welthorpe – and any editor worth his salt would have spotted him a mile away. Fortunately for ‘Eric’ not one of the ones he corresponded with realised.
Eric as a character, a persona, came into his own as a member of the now defunct ChavScum (avatar right). He signed up in 2005 and settled in very quickly. Rand had a bit of a back-story* for him, but this grew quite rapidly as he posted more of his history on the ChavScum forum – notes had to be kept for constancy.
ChavScum metamorphosed into SpazMonkey for a while. During this period Eric was very prolific and scrambled his way to the top of the ‘Reputation‘ league, with many a virtual thumbs-up for his contributions, many of them visual by way of Photoshopped imagery.
Following his permanent ban from ChavScum (after 18 months loyal service) he took to hanging about on LeeLad.Net, but his heart was no longer in it.
Whenever Rand replied to a post, or more particularly a Private Message to Eric he remained totally in character. Eric’s outlook on life, love, death, etc., was akin to that of Rand, and while it is true those who corresponded privately with Eric were being hoodwinked, Eric/Rand was most sincere in his responses, honest in that regard.
It is perhaps this aspect of the Eric Welthorpe ruse that is most regretted. There are many people who will feel duped and angry were they to discover the reality of ‘ Eric’, though they ought not to feel so, Eric/Rand meant every word he wrote in his private correspondences and would hope they forgive his deception and understand that he was, in his way, being most sincere in his exchanges .
Eric Welthorpe is mentioned in the Encyclopedia Dramatica entry for ChavScum.
Eric Welthorpe is a ‘resting’ member of Facebook and Random Banter (under the alias of Papa Doc).
Eric has had a MySpace space for some time now;
* Eric’s back-story.
The back story developed from a few bits and pieces kept in Rand’s head to a document containing names, dates, locations; a full history. This history came about as Eric invented people and situations to support his postings, particularly where weight would be added to his argument if he’d had the experiences under discussion.
Most people introduce a ‘friend’, or a ‘friend of the family’ who has experienced the ‘thing’ being debated in order to add substance and knowledge (albeit second/third-hand) to their contributions, and Eric was no different. Well, he was different, in that he invariably wrote of what he knew, as does any author. 
So, from the concept of ‘Eric’, that of him being a counterpart to Joe Orton’s ‘Edna Welthorpe’, he grew from this small seed into a ‘real person’ with a real history, fully fledged. Much of Eric is ‘fact’ in that it is the experiences of Rand’s father/grandfather/uncle/self, an essence of truth runs throughout the personal history.
However, much like a soap character it seems so much has happened to them, which may appear unlikely for one person, but all the expereinces are based on a reality normally shared by more than one person – if you understand what that means, and time concertina’d to account for it all!
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