powercorrupts --
It's not impossible. But I don't have access to government records. I don't have the details of the original case -- not the some Usenet posting, but the official records. (Assuming there was an original case, and the thing wasn't written by some impersonator trying to destroy the target's reputation.) Particularly the part with the full identity of the person, which should be more specific than just a name. Nor have I seen Encyclopedist's ID.
However, I do know that it's legally risky to accuse someone of a major felony, at least when speaking publicly. Mostly, people talk about suing more than they actually do it, but it's still a risk. Actually, it's probably not a huge risk with Encyclopedist -- when people actually have legal counsel, they are often advised to avoid whomever they are in conflict with and let the lawyer handle the communications. A lawyer would probably be concerned that Encyclopedist might hurt his case by continuing to talk. But even so, it's not a good habit to get into saying legally risky things.
Presumably, if the official records were located, and if Encyclopedist were willing to show legal ID to someone, suspicions could be confirmed or denied with far better accuracy than guessing based on Usenet posts.
It would seem to be helpful to contact authorities with access to the ViSOR database, perhaps the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre. In my completely non-professional opinion, that would seem to be something a concerned citizen could do with minimal risk of getting sued.
http://www.npia.police.uk/en/10510.htmBut, as it stands now, I see suspicions, similarities, but not enough to come to any solid conclusions. Not solid enough to take the legal risk of publicly accusing someone of a felony, in any case. In other words, gossip.
As for whether or not I have an account on Wikipedia, I already discussed that on Encyc.
http://forum.encyc.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=278The fact that I am, in fact, a woman could be easily confirmed by phone. Not that I would give my phone number out to someone I would not expect to have a pleasant conversation with. Herschelrustofsky, Emperor, and Somey seem reasonably nice, although I'm not sure if they're the sorts to exchange phone numbers. And I would expect a name -- a first name, at least -- and a phone number in exchange for a name and a phone number. None of that hidden caller ID stuff.