In the days before Schapelle Corby's release, a stocky British man approached a Channel Ten news crew and, bizarrely, identified himself as ''Morpheus''.

Presumably named after the fictional sci-fi character in The Matrix movies, the man is also known to use dozens of other identities including Steve Binary, Lisa Harding and Christine Bowran. But Fairfax Media can confirm his real identity is Steve Addison and that he travelled to Bali, from his native Macclesfield in Cheshire, Britain, just to be part of the parade.

After Corby's release last week, Addison walked past the assembled media outside her villa complex in the company of Queensland UFO fanatic, anti-vaccine crusader, fluoride sceptic and conspiracy theorist Diane Frola.

Capt Dozens of identities: Steve Addison has a business background in IT security management. Photo: Channel 10

Together, the duo form the ''global collaboration'' behind the pro-Corby ''Expendable Project'' support group. The pair claim to have exposed a complex, multi-layered conspiracy involving the Australian and Indonesian governments, the Australian Federal Police, Qantas, at least one major national bank and the entire media.
When Fairfax Media originally attempted to speak with the pair through the Expendable Project's website, its ''gatekeepers'' issued a ''yellow alert'' about a ''hostile initiative''. Last week, however, a former group member spoke publicly for the first time about her experiences inside the group's ''mother ship''.

Jo Soucek said she joined the supporters group in its infancy, hoping to help with Corby's mental health and to analyse possible ways of working within the Indonesian system to shorten her sentence.
''Dissenting opinion was allowed back then,'' she said. ''But all that changed.

''A group of individuals came along and pushed a 'you're either with us or against us' mentality. Any differing opinion about the circumstances [surrounding the case] was met with abuse and personal attacks. Research conducted by one person was passed off as being done by a 'team of researchers'.

''Multiple pseudonyms were encouraged to give the impression of there being more supporters than there actually were. Facebook profile images were used without people's permission in montages meant to depict Schapelle's supporters.''

Soucek said the driving force behind the change in direction was a British user named Morpheus, whose name she later discovered was Steve Addison. She said she left after watching others who held different opinions to the group ''attacked, maligned and subject to extensive vitriol''.
She said she opened her email account to discover a ''vicious dossier'' on one high-profile former supporter, meant to discredit them.

''It appears to have been sent to nearly everyone who ever appeared on the forum,'' she said.
Addison has a business background in IT security management and, with wife Christine, is the director of a British programming firm called BinaryNine.

While he claims the Expendable Project runs independently to other shadowy sites such as HiddenWorldResearch, HiddenWorldFilms and schapelle.net, IT analysis shows their owners' identity has been deliberately concealed using the same US private domain host, Moniker Online Services. They also share the same common goal: to anonymously harass, intimidate and discredit detractors of the Corby conspiracy.

Fairfax can reveal that Addison is also connected to websites belonging to other Schapelle ''believers'', having created the domain name womenforschapelle.com, which is now managed by Queensland psychiatric nurse Kim Bax. Last year Addison, this time posing as primary researcher ''Steve Preston'', became involved in a heated row on radio with ABC Melbourne's Jon Faine after the presenter labelled the Expendable website's theories as ''absurd''. Addison said his group of ''academics from around the world'' had acquired ''tens of thousands of government items'' pointing to Corby's ''sacrifice''.

But Faine responded: ''I couldn't find a single thing there that justified the level of excitement that you claim you're entitled to. It's a classic conspiracy theory.

''Stop your silly claim that this is the story no Australian media dare touch.''

While Addision became angry by constant references and links to conspiracy theories, Frola has carved out a career in publishing them. Before Corby was arrested in 2004, Frola co-founded UFOlogist magazine, which blames the Australian government for a continuing cover-up of ''known alien contact''.

She is also the editor of the magazine Hard Evidence, which deals with ''subjects the mainstream media won't or don't tackle'', such as the paranormal, crop circles, alien abductions and ''government conspiracies''.

The same magazine features links to the Expendable Project. When Fairfax approached Addison and Frola in Bali this week, Frola snorted and Addison said: ''I've got nothing to say to Fairfax Media or any comments whatsoever … because of your hostile campaign.''