Internet Chat News Archives from 2009

December, 2009

Zimmerman man charged with a double A felony - A 65-year-old Zimmerman man is accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl.
Robert Francis Blasey allegedly met the girl over the Internet and met her in person this fall.
The girl is from North Dakota, and the arrest took place in Bismark.
He is also being charged with luring minors by computer.
Blasey was a traveling salesman who allegedly met the girl online.
Even though the alleged sex was consensual, because of the girl’s age it is considered a felony.

Internet luring charges laid in 2 cases - Two Calgary men alleged to have had sex with underaged girls after meeting them on the internet have been charged in two unrelated cases.
In the first case, Calgary police with help from a special child exploitation unit of officers from different forces, arrested and charged a 24-year-old man with several sex offences.
Investigators allege that he had sex with a 13-year-old girl after meeting her on an online chat site, using the handle "Noway."
In the second case, police arrested a 27-year-old man on Tuesday, alleging that he had sex with a 14-year-old girl who he met online under the internet identity of "9272" or "Keven."
In both cases, the victims' parents were monitoring their computers and notified police. Read More>>

12 Kelowna school girls lured on Internet with drugs, smokes and booze - A sex-for-drugs lure has so far uncovered 12 girls from middle schools in Kelowna who were taken advantage of by a 57-year-old man who they met online.
“Details emerged of how Maddocks would meet and lure his victims on social networking sites and chat rooms, sometimes passing himself off as being 16 or 19 years of age,” he alleged. “Virtual meetings would often lead to face to face meetings where Maddocks would offer and supply alcohol, cigarettes and, on one occasion, a drug to the youth.”
33 charges have been laid so far, mostly of a sexual nature. It was unclear if it involves more than 12 victims.
“Police are also appealing to parents and guardians to be vigilant with respect to their child’s access and use of computer in the home,” police said.
Apply the appropriate internet safeguards and take an interest in your child’s computer usage.  Read More>>

Tupper Lake police arrest Long Island man on sex charges - A 23-year-old Long Island man was arrested Thursday on charges that he traveled to Tupper Lake and had sex with a girl under the age of 17 after having Internet chat and cell phone conversations with her.
During the Internet and phone chats with the girl, Sultan agreed to travel to Tupper Lake, police said. He allegedly committed the offenses over the course of two days in July at an undisclosed hotel in Tupper Lake, then returned to his home on Long Island. Read More>>

Sex attacker groomed girl online - A man who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl after grooming her on the internet has been jailed indefinitely.
Richard Paul Graves assaulted the teenager, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, while he was on license for the rape of an eight-year-old girl.
The court heard Graves locked the teenager in a garage at an isolated former airfield in Tholthorpe and gave her alcohol, before carrying out repeated sex attacks over three days.  These are the type of people your kids are chatting with.  Read More>>

November, 2009

Virginia man took train to Littleton to meet 12-year-old girl - Police and the FBI arrested and charged a Virginia man Friday after he traveled to Littleton to meet a 12-year-old girl he had exchanged e-mails with on the Internet.
In a joint statement, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone and Littleton Police Chief John Kelly said Daniel O'Brien, 32, of Virginia, was arrested Friday after the train on which was traveling arrived in Littleton. Leone and Kelly said in a press release O'Brien and the girl had made initial contact over the Internet in a chat room.
"This is a stark reminder of the type of predatory behavior aimed at vulnerable children that can occur on the Internet. Thankfully, the defendant was arrested before he was able to kidnap the victim and carry out his prurient intentions,'' Leone said. Read More>>
Another good reason to use a computer monitoring program. 

Local Girl Held as Sex Slave by Man She Met on Internet - Authorities have arrested a 57-year-old Albuquerque man after police say he met a 16-year-old Westminster girl on the Internet and drove her to New Mexico, where they had sex and the man took bondage fetish photos of her.
Edward S. Christy was arrested Monday in Albuquerque on suspicion of criminal sexual penetration, custodial interference and sexual exploitation of children.
On Sunday, the girl's parents told Westminster police their daughter left a note, saying she had run away from home.
The parents found e-mail and chat logs on her computer that indicated she had met an Albuquerque man online. This could have been nipped at the bud with a computer Monitoring Program.  Read More>>

Jail for man who met teen on Internet and abducted her - A Lincolnshire man who sparked a nationwide hunt when he ran away with a 14-year-old girl he met on the internet has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Lincoln Crown Court heard the pair vanished together six months after meeting on the social networking site Bebo.
Alison Cunningham, prosecuting, said the girl had also been reported missing then after becoming friendly with Ellis in an Internet chatroom.
"This followed a suspected failed suicide pact between them," Miss Cunningham added. Read More>>

Sexual assault in Pa. added to porn charges - A Fairton man facing child pornography charges in Cumberland County recently admitted in Superior Court in Western Pennsylvania that he traveled to Pennsylvania to sexually assault a teenage girl he met on the Internet, according to reports.
Andrew Luko, 29, pleaded guilty last month in Cambria County Court to two counts of statutory sexual assault and two counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with the sexual abuse of a teen in 2007, in Johnstown, Pa., once when the girl was 14 and again when she was 15.
On both occasions - one meeting in March when the teenager was 14 and one over a 3-day period in July when she was 15 - Luko allegedly took the victim to a motel, where authorities said the sexual abuse took place. Read More>>

Resort man jailed for grooming teen -  A PAEDOPHILE groomed a Blackpool schoolboy before travelling to the resort to sexually assault him.
Simon Oliver, 50, claimed to be 18 when he met the 15-year-old boy in an internet chatroom and even posted fake pictures of a young man he claimed was him.
Preston Crown Court heard how his young victim was desperate for a friend, someone to care for him, and agreed to meet him at Layton Train Station.
Charlotte Atherton, prosecuting, said Oliver had groomed the vulnerable youngster online after he joined a website in August last year to make friends. Read More>>

October, 2009

Girl Found Murdered in Field after Meeting Man on the Internet - A Man was under arrest last night after a teenager who was allegedly “groomed” on the social networking site Facebook was found murdered and dumped in a ditch.
The girl  is believed to have met a man in an online chatroom and then arranged a clandestine face-to-face meeting.
Her attacker is believed to have gagged her with gaffer tape in a car and killed her.
Last night the officer leading the inquiry Detective Chief Inspector Paul Harker said that the tragedy should serve as a terrible warning about the dangers lurking on the Internet.
“I would say to parents and to children ‘Please, please, please be absolutely sure who you are talking to’,” he said.
“Never agree to meet somebody outside unless you are absolutely sure who they are.” Read More>>

Internet man jailed for sex offences - A Man has been jailed for three years for committing sex offences with a girl he befriended over the internet who turned out to be only 12 years old.
It was only after they arranged to meet in Manchester he appreciated she had not told the truth and she was under age, and it was only after she went back with him to Wetherby and the offences had occurred that her true age came to light.
Michael Smith, prosecuting, said Talbot and the girl made contact through an MSN chatroom. She did not tell him her true age and told her mother she was in contact with a 14-year-old boy in West Yorkshire. Read More>>

Sapulpa Man Accused Of Raping Teen After Meeting On MySpace - A Sapulpa man is in the Creek County jail accused of raping a teenage girl he met online. It's what parents worry about and what kids think will never happen to them.
A 15-year-old Creek County teen met the man on MySpace. Then they started talking on the phone and then agreed to meet in person.
MySpace is a social networking site where people can talk, share pictures and generally keep in touch with their family and friends.
You can also talk to total strangers from around the globe or around the corner. Any police agency will tell you sexual predators use online sites like MySpace to find their prey.
"My advice would be one, for parents to be involved and monitor what their child is doing on the internet and for young adults, pay attention to what you're doing, not knowing this people, basically strangers, not everybody has good intentions," said Lt. John Davis. Read More>>

Internet lurer 'parent's worst nightmare' - Calling him "a parent's worst nightmare," a prosecutor yesterday said a man who tried to lure young girls into sexual encounters should be sentenced to "at least four years."
Crown lawyer Nadine Nesbitt said such a term is necessary to ensure impressionable minors are protected from predators like James Hepburn.
Nesbitt said the fact Hepburn, 30, of Olds, was able to convince four adolescent girls to either expose and touch themselves on webcams or send him pornographic photos of themselves illustrated their vulnerability.
"It just shows how adolescents are not thinking, they aren't thinking like adults," Read More>>

Teacher's aide likely to plead guilty in rape case - A teacher's aide from Winchester is expected to plead guilty to charges he used the Internet to lure girls into pornography and sex, raping one 14-year-old.
Christopher French, who was an special education aide at McCall Middle School, was charged last year with one count of rape and 17 other charges, including possession of child porn and enticement of a child under the age of 16.
Prosecutors said the 29-year-old French groomed girls through online chats, sending and receiving naked photographs. In one case, he is accused of raping a 14-year-old girl at her house.

Teacher jailed over sex with teen - A HIGH school science teacher who had sex with a 13-year-old girl he groomed with explicit messages through an internet chat room has been jailed.
Matthew Knott, 24, of Isaac Way, Miles Platting, invented a fictitious persona on the MSN message service to encourage the schoolgirl to meet him.
Manchester Crown Court was told that Knott, a teacher at Elton High in Bury, picked the girl up in his car then took her back to his flat where they had sex. Read More>>

September, 2009

Teen internet porn shock - CHILDREN as young as 12 viewing pornographic internet sites are being exposed to predators who try to meet them in person.
During an investigation by The Herald, a reporter posing as 16-year- old schoolgirl Busi took only five minutes to strike up a sordid telephone conversation with a 54-year-old Durban man she met through a South African porn website.
Minutes into the conversation the man – known only as Pat – offered to fly to Cape Town to meet “Busi”.
He requested a photograph of her, followed by a nude video.
A Grade 9 pupil in Nelson Mandela Bay said it had become the norm for children to explore pornographic sites through their cellphones.
“We either make fun of whatever we see on these sites, meet people or try out new sexual positions to strengthen our relationships.”
A group of teens aged between 15 and 17 at a local school said they went onto these websites for entertainment and to gather knowledge which they would later use when with their partners.

Delray Beach Man Accused Of Sex With Teen He Met Online - Detectives Say Man Had Sex With Girl 16 Times At Punta Gorda Motel.
A Delray Beach man was arrested on allegations he had sex at a motel on Florida's west coast with a 17-year-old girl whom he met on the Internet.
Detectives said Haller met the girl in an Internet chat room about three weeks ago and that they agreed to meet in person. Detectives said Haller took a Greyhound bus to Punta Gorda last Thursday, and the next day the girl took a taxi after school to the motel, where they stayed for four days.
Detectives said the girl sent Haller nude pictures from his cell phone and had sex with her 16 times. Detectives said Haller also gave her prescription pills, telling her it was for anxiety and would help calm her down. Read More>>

Man Facing Charges Against Youngster In 3 Counties - Police in King arrested Maynard Norman Peters, 51, after an ongoing investigation into his communications with a child 16 years of age or younger.
Police said Peters was communicating with the girl by cell phone, text messaging, instant messaging and e-mail and lied about seeing her when she was recently reporting missing.
Police said Peters took the child from school several times and on one occasion took her from her residence to Peters' home. Police said neither the child's parents nor school officials were aware of the encounters. Read More>>

Kansas City Man Sentenced to Federal Prison on Sexual Predator Charge - Timothy Kessler, 42, Kansas City, Kan., has been sentenced to 97 months in federal prison for transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sexual activity, U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch said.
In September 2008, Kessler pleaded guilty. In his plea he admitted he used a website to make contact with teenage boys for sex.
Kessler had persuaded a minor boy from Blue Springs, Mo., to have sex with another man. Kessler had first contacted the minor in the website’s chat room. Kessler told the boy he was a photographer and he could help the boy get started in a modeling career. Read More>

August, 2009

Hong Kong man jailed for molesting girl, 13, he met online - A 26-year-old man has been jailed in Hong Kong after being convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl he met in an internet chatroom, a court report said Tuesday.
 At the hearing Monday, the court heard the victim, now 15, agreed to meet Cheung in May 2007 after taking part in sex chats with him online.
   Their meetings resulted in a series of sexual assaults, one taking place at the girl's home, another on the staircase in a rail station and one in love hotel where Cheung demanded oral sex and attempted to have intercourse with the girl. Read More>>

Man arrested for Internet luring and rape of minor - On Wednesday, Colorado Springs Police Department and its Internet Crimes Against Children division arrested Barry J. Wilson III, 21, after police were notified that a 14-year-old female had been sexually assaulted by an adult male.
The victim met Wilson in a online chat room and later agreed to meet in person when the assault occurred.
During follow-up investigation, it was discovered that Wilson had met previously with and sexually assaulted other juveniles. Read More>>

Paedophile groomed girl, 13, made her drunk and had sex with her - A PAEDOPHILE who groomed a 13-year-old girl in an internet chatroom has been jailed for six years.
Stephen Whelehan made contact with the teenager using MSN Chatline – then went on to ply her with drink and have sex with her.
The girl did not come home one night and her worried parents alerted police, who found her naked in Whelehan's bed.
The youngster, who had been a virgin, was still one-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit six hours later.
Derby Crown Court heard Whelehan knew his victim was only 13 but got her to perform sex acts over the internet, viewing her using a webcam.
Within days, they met in West Park, Long Eaton, before going to his home where they had sex. Read More>>

July, 2009

Australian diplomat propositioned NZ boy for sex - An Australian Federal Police agent, Svetlana Palmer, tendered a copy of an internet chat session between Finnan known as "Johnno", and "tinyass15" from New Zealand.
During the chat, "Johnno" discussed visiting New Zealand in May 2007 to see the boy and paying him for sex.
"I promise if I like you, I will keep coming and paying for you. We will have a secret together."
The court was told that after the chatroom session, Finnin viewed web pages including a New Zealand holiday guide.
Finnin held a top-secret security clearance from the Federal Government until July 2006, at a time it was alleged he was involved in an international child sex ring. Read More>>

Search for missing teenage girl - Police are searching for a 14-year-old Lincolnshire girl who has disappeared with a man she met on the internet.
Clare Haver, from Harrington Street in Bourne, went missing on Saturday after a week-long camping holiday in Skegness with a friend of the same age.
Police said Michael Ellis, 23, believed to be Clare's boyfriend, joined her on holiday without her parents' knowledge.
Detectives have said Mr Ellis has "mental health issues" but there is no indication he is a "threat" to Clare.
The couple are thought to have run away together and were last seen leaving an address in Corby Glenn. Read More>>

Driver lured internet chat room girls to rape trap - A trucker posed as a teenage boy in an internet chatroom to groom two girls before raping them.
Eugene Molloy, 47, then pretended to be the boy's dad, saying he would kill his 'son' unless the girls, 14 and 17, had sex with him.
Molloy admitted seven rapes in hotels and his cab when he appeared at Preston crown court.
Last night, the dad of the younger girl, said: "Children should be alerted to the fact that just because there is a picture of a lad it doesn't mean that's who they are talking to." – Good Advice! Read More>>

Belleville man accused of sexually assaulting Morris Township girl - An Essex County man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Morris County girl he met in an online kids' chat room, after police found him alone with her in his SUV outside a local school last week at 1 a.m., according to court documents.
Viktor Zhadanov, 26, of Belleville, was in the driver's seat "adjusting his sweat pants" and the Morris Township girl was his front-seat passenger when a Morris Township police officer conducted a motor-vehicle stop
When interviewed by police, the girl said she met Zhadanov in a kids' online chat room, according to the affidavit. With the username of 'Slave,' he claimed he was 15 years old and from Newark, and the girl told him she was 13 years old, the affidavit states.
The girl also claimed she communicated with him via instant messaging on a cell phone Read More>>

Tamworth paedophile groomed girl, 14 - A 'CUNNING' middle-aged Tamworth paedophile pressured a 14-year-old girl into sending naked webcam pictures of herself by masquerading as a teenage Internet buddy, a court heard.
Forty-six-year-old Mark Green contacted the girl through the MSN social network, pretending to be a 17-year-old boy
He was jailed for a total of 16 months after admitting inciting a child to sexual activity and a separate offence of possessing indecent images of children.
"Networking sites provide a platform for people like you to infiltrate the lives of children, causing them anguish," the judge told the defendant.
"Like many young people, this girl was in the habit of communicating through MSN – you befriended her by using a false name and telling her you were 17. Read More>>

June, 2009

Sex fiend who abducted young girl is sent to jail - A WEST Lothian lorry driver who abducted and had sex with a 15-year-old girl he met on the Internet has been jailed for five years.
Robert Williams — described by a court as every parent’s worst nightmare — sparked an international manhunt and worldwide publicity after he disappeared with the girl.
He later had sex with her in a London hotel, Grimsby Crown Court heard, after winning her trust when they began speaking in an Internet chatroom.
The court heard Williams, of Whitburn, initially used the name Dave Ingram and pretended he was 19-years-old. Read More>>

Parents suspect runaway teens met man on Internet - Parents of two girls who ran away with a man in his 30s suspected right away they met him over the Internet.
The girls, 12 and 13, were found in Toledo on Wednesday, June 3, where they told police the Michigan man who picked them up in Xenia on June 1 sexually assaulted them.
The girls apparently met the man on MySpace.com, a social networking Web site, where he chatted with them and convinced them that he would help them run away. Read More>>

Paedophile admits grooming Wigan schoolgirl - A paedophile admitted grooming a Wigan schoolgirl over the internet before sexually assaulting her.
Adam Chapman, 25, confessed to molesting the 14-year-old youngster after police raided his family home looking for his father Dennis.
Officers not only found Chapman Sr. had downloaded hundreds of indecent images of children but also evidence his son had been grooming the teenager in a chatroom.
Chapman Jnr admitted meeting the Wigan schoolgirl on at least three occasions and sleeping with her in a hotel room near Euston.
Chapman first began chatting to the girl when she was 13 Read More>>

Man accused of assault in Vail Valley forest - A man living illegally in the Vail Valley is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old in a remote cabin in the Wolcott area.
Adolfo Guardado, 24, who had been living in Edwards, had been chatting online and exchanging phone calls with the child, whose name and gender were not released.
When the child asked Guardado for a ride to school, Guardado picked up the child and drove to a cabin in the National Forest approximately 10 miles from Wolcott, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office says.
Guardado assaulted the child in the cabin and then brought the child back to school.  Read More>>

May, 2009

Internet predator groomed and abused girl - An internet predator who befriended a youngster online and then lured her to Weston-super-Mare and sexually abused her has been handed an indeterminate sentence for public protection.
Pub worker Richard Butlin, 47, established contact with the 14-year-old girl via an internet chatroom in which he posed as a boy called Stu.
The court heard that, following a family row, the girl texted Butlin to pick her up and she left her home in her school uniform, saying she was going to school and then seeing a friend.
Brendon Moorhouse, defending, said that the girl had said to police she would have told Butlin to stop his activities if she thought he was "doing something wrong".
She also indicated her friends were sexually active, and she wanted to be like them. Read More>>

Valley MySpace Teen Sexually Assaulted - Fresno County Sheriff’s arrested a 20-year-old Fresno man, accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl from Kettleman City.
Sheriff’s Deputies say the teen ran away to meet Luis Bernabe, who she met on the social networking website, MySpace.
Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said, “A 13-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and I can only see it getting worse unless we take some positive steps with law enforcement in partnership with our parents.”
Sheriff Mims is advising parents to learn more about online predators and how to protect children. 

Windsor man gets 4 years for Internet luring of girl, 14 -  A man from Windsor, Ont., has been sentenced to four years in prison for convincing a 14-year-old girl to leave her family's Saskatchewan home in the middle of the night to live with him.
Daniel Nickolson, 43, pleaded guilty in a Windsor court to child abduction and internet luring.
Nickolson met the girl, who was 14 at the time, on the internet. The girl climbed out a window of the family home near Swift Current, Sask., in the middle of the night in March 2008, leaving behind a note that said she had run away with her internet boyfriend. Read More>>

April, 2009

Erie teen's life resumes after disappearance - Lillie, 14, had walked to a Wal-Mart, where she met up with Donald Cates, her friend from Internet chat rooms. She called him Max.
She had left with him not at all sure where they were going, and knowing there would be trouble later, when her mother would find the notebook she'd left open on her bedroom floor. Inside was a rough draft of a runaway letter. They had planned this.
"Once we knew who she was with, we were worried," Michelle Lillie said. "You start thinking, What if? What if? What if?"
There was reason to worry. Cates was 21. He was facing a second trial in his home state of Montana, where police said he had forced five underage girls to have sex with him. Read More>>

Internet pedophile Lee Donaldson begins jail term - He posed as a lad of 14.  But in reality, Lee Donaldson was a 36-year-old cyber pervert who persuaded schoolgirls to act out his sexual fantasies.
Donaldson trawled internet chat-rooms to find vulnerable girls to groom in a 10-month campaign.
He made contact with six different girls from his computer at home in Washington.
It was revealed he had been accessing chat-rooms to contact girls under the pretence he was a schoolboy. Officers also found out he was downloading, storing and passing on child pornography. Read More>>

Paedophile ‘groomed’ boy on internet - A PAEDOPHILE who tried to lure a schoolboy to a secret meeting for sex was yesterday jailed for three years by a judge who told him: “I wish it could be indefinite.”
Rhodes, 26, befriended the boy, exchanged sexually explicit messages, sent him photographs of his penis and arranged to meet him at a cinema complex in Middlesbrough.  Rhodes groomed the 13- year-old boy for days before arranging to meet him at a cinema complex for sex.
Teesside Crown Court heard that the boy, who has learning difficulties and suffers from health problems, had second thoughts about the plan and did not meet Rhodes. Read More>>

Online 'friend' takes 13-year-old to Twin Cities - Authorities are seeking a felony charge against a registered sex offender from Minnesota who is accused of taking a 13-year-old La Crosse girl from her home after developing a relationship with her online.
The girl was reported missing Friday and is believed to have left willingly with the 32-year-old man from Burnsville, Minnesota.
Her family and investigators used information from Internet social networking accounts to find the girl.

Predator pleads guilty to child-sex charges - South Shore resident Sylvain Dufresne, 35, pleaded guilty yesterday to separate charges of sexual touching and invitation to sexual touching involving a 12-year-old Delson boy he initially encountered on an Internet chat site.
In the most recent incident, Hélène Poussard, Dufresne's lawyer, told the judge, the 12-year-old met Dufresne on a website that was supposed to be restricted to adults.
Gagnon said Dufresne obtained the boy's telephone number, then met the boy at home while his parents were out.

March, 2009

Girl faces child porn charges for nude photos - A 14-year-old girl in New Jersey is facing child pornography charges after she posted nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com, police said Thursday.
The case comes as prosecutors nationwide pursue child pornography cases resulting from kids sexting nude photos to one another over cell phones and e-mail.
"We consider this case a wake-up call to parents," said Passaic County sheriff's spokesman Bill Maer. The girl posted the photos because "she wanted her boyfriend to see them."

Cumbrian dad, 48, 'groomed teen for sex' - A middle-aged Cumbrian man travelled 200 miles to Leicester so he could spend the night with a 15-year-old girl he had met in an internet chatroom.
The man, 48, who has two children of his own, sent the girl “flirtatious” emails and text messages after meeting her on a dating website.
Although he knew how old she was, he gave her a “friendship” ring and arranged to meet her in Leicester, where he had booked a family room in a hotel.
The girl said that while chatting on the internet and in text messages the girl told the man “about school stuff” and about her hobbies. He, in return, told her about his two children and his hobbies.
On the day the girl met the man at Leicester train station she told her parents she would be staying with a friend for the night.  Read More>>

Connecticut man faces 15 years in state prison for paying teen for sex - A Connecticut man who met a 14-year-old Lehigh Valley girl in an Internet chat room and paid her for sex spoke today. 
The man met the victim in a Yahoo.com chat room called Girls Who Need Money under the username "mycash2you" in 2005. He told the girl his name was Allan and gave her his phone number, police said.
The two later talked on the phone and agreed to meet at Bethlehem Area Public Library on April 27, 2006, police said. He offered the girl $120 an hour for sex and she accepted.  Read More>

February, 2009

Pimps Go Online to Lure Kids Into Prostitution - She was a 16-year-old California girl looking for trouble on MySpace; he was a 22-year-old self-described pimp who liked the revealing photos she posted to her profile. Three weeks after they met on the social networking site, they were arrested together in real life outside a cheap motel in Sacramento, 50 miles from her home.
Last June, a 14-year-old Ohio girl ran away with a 30-year-old Florida pimp named Alan Townsend, after meeting him on the social networking site Urbanchat.com.
"This happens, and it happens a lot more than people realize," says Parry Aftab, founder and director of WiredSafety, which advises children on internet risks. "We don't want to terrify parents. But if their kids are at risk, they're at more risk online." Read More>>

Cell phone 'predator' gets three years in prison - Costa Mesa man, 56, at first claimed he was 16 when he met a 14-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, prosecution says.
A self-employed computer consultant was sentenced to three years in prison Friday for using a 14-year-old girl he met in an Internet chat room for sexual purposes by enticing her to take nude photos of herself with a cell phone.
The girl's mother told Kelly before sentencing that Riddle "took my daughter's innocent view of the world. …He took away her trust of people." Read More>>

Jury: Man guilty of child sex crime - A 34-year-old Beaver Dam man accused of using the Internet to lure a teenage girl for sex has been found guilty.
The felony charges stem from a Dec. 28, 2007, incident involving a 14-year-old Waupun girl.
The Waupun teen told investigators she met Campbell through a chat room on the Internet and invited him to come to her Waupun home to watch TV in her bedroom while her mother was at work, according to the criminal complaint.
While Campbell was in the residence, the girl told police that he grabbed her in a sexual manner.  The victim also testified that Campbell masturbated in front of her and touched her breast, according to the complaint. 

Half Hollow Hills West teacher charged in sex with boy - A Half Hollow Hills West teacher was arrested Friday and charged with having sex with a 15-year-old boy, police said.
"The two met on an Internet chat room," Auspaker said. "It was a chat room on a men's Web site; a gay Web site."
Berman picked the teen up from his home Jan. 31 and took him to Berman's home at 90-14 Fairfield Way, where they had sex, police said. Berman is single and lives alone.

Online predators using phones, Teen victim warns of dangers lurking in tiny keypad - Kyra, now 13, used her phone to look for some music and ended up on mocospace.com, a networking site. A 20-year-old man texted her and said he was getting off work soon. She texted him back and agreed to meet him because, as she says, "I have trouble saying 'no.'"
The man came to pick her up, then sexually assaulted her.
Increasingly, online predators are using phones, and other handheld devices to seek out and groom potential underage victims, said Mike Harris, who supervises the Child Sex Offender Internet Investigations Unit run out of the Jefferson County district attorney's office. Read More>>

Man performs sex acts with young girl he met on internet - A 31-year-old man indecently assaulted a girl of 12 after striking up an internet chat with her and arranging to meet her on a date.
The man was handed down a suspended jail term after admitting to defiling the girl and participating in sexual acts with her.
The internet chatting took place in December and before. Read More>>

January, 2009

Charges laid after online luring attempts - Two men have been charged with luring underage Calgary children over the Internet, including an American who flew here to meet a 15-year-old girl, renewing calls for parents to monitor home computers carefully.
In the first case, a Calgary man is charged with the luring and sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy, allegedly within 10 days of chatting online.
In a separate case, an American is charged with luring after flying to Calgary with the alleged intention of meeting a 15-year-old girl he knew from online.
The two cases must serve as a reminder of the dangers of the Internet, and the responsibilities of parents to monitor home computer use.
"I think all parents should be aware of what their children are doing, who they're talking with," said Andrus, of the Southern Alberta Integrated Child Exploitation team. "You have to make it a priority to know these things." Read More>>

Police: Florida man used Internet to entice Idaho girl - Police say a Florida man used the Internet to entice a 15-year-old Idaho girl and encourage her to drug her mother so the two could continue their chats uninterrupted.
Moscow Police Department officials say the man, 52, of Melbourne, Fla., met the girl on an Orlando Bloom Web site when she was 12- or 13-years old. The two met by blogging on the site, then exchanged personal e-mails and continued to communicate informally. The relationship escalated in January 2008, officials said.
"He represented himself as a 21-year-old police officer in training in Florida," Moscow Police Department Assistant Chief David Duke told the Idaho Press-Tribune. The girl originally indicated she was older

Novi man pleads guilty to enticing teen for sex - A 24-year-old Novi man has admitted bringing a 13-year-old Oklahoma girl he met online to Michigan for sex.
According to prosecutors, Villanueva used Internet chats and cell phones to contact the girl in 2007. In March 2008, he went to Sand Springs, Okla., to bring her back to his Novi apartment for sex.
"She was yet another victim of an online enticement and her victimization would have continued for much longer," acting U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said Tuesday in a news release.

Newcastle girl lured on Internet - A 31-year-old man from New Hamburg has been charged with child luring after a man met a 15-year-old girl in an Internet chat room and invited her to his home to have sex.
The man was charged in Durham Region, where the girl and her family live.
Police said the teen, who is now 16, met the man in a chat room last May, and they chatted for several months before the conversations turned sexual.
The pair arranged to meet in a store parking lot in Newcastle on Jan. 3, and the man picked her up and drove her to his home. Read More>>

Prints in snow lead mom to girl and predator - Her 13-year-old daughter's footprints led a North York mother to the car hiding the girl and an alleged child-luring pervert early yesterday. When she looked inside the vehicle, the mother saw her daughter being sexually assaulted, police said.
Police said the 13-year-old and a man met on an MSN chatline the night before and agreed to meet at a location near the girl's home.
Const. Curtis Quesnelle called the incident a "cautionary tale" for all families.
"That's why we put out that press release to alert the public on how these things can happen so quickly, especially for the parents to keep an eye on their children and what they are doing on the Internet," Quesnelle said.
Quesnelle said the girl told the mom she was going to shovel the driveway.  Read More>>

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