Online sex offenders tracked

[Al-khiyal]

British Columbia cops nab Australian trying to lure 'Canadian girl' on Internet

September 3, 2009 -- A man in Australia who thought he was persuading a Canadian teenage girl to visit him for sex has instead found himself under arrest. The resident of rural Queensland was in fact talking with a male detective of the suburban New Westminster, British Columbia police department's major crimes unit. The 44-year-old man was arrested Wednesday by Australian federal police, culminating a seven-month investigation. He faces charges of using a carriage service to groom someone under age 16 for sex and indecent exposure to someone under age 16. Detective Mike MacFarlane, who investigates offences against children, cruises the web's chat rooms and social-networking sites in the guise of a 14-year-old girl. He was in a Vancouver chat room last February when the man started a conversation. “He did the usual talking and decided to expose himself on his web cam and tried to commission this young girl to do some sexual things to herself,” Det. MacFarlane said in an interview Thursday. He notified Australian police almost immediately because the man has three children, including an 11-year-old girl. “We sent it over as a sort of child-protection investigation in case there was something else going on in the family,” he said. Det. MacFarlane said he'd had a previous case involving a one-time contact with an Australian who masturbated via webcam, but this cyber relationship carried on sporadically for months. By summer it had become almost constant and increasingly pathetic. “He sent pictures of himself and pictures of one of his daughters and pictures of his cows,” Det. MacFarlane said. “He'd tell me that he loved me and that he missed me and that he wants me to come there.” The man, who has not been identified, also said he planned to visit Canada in January. Det. MacFarlane dodged the man's request for sexually explicit material via webcam by saying the girl's parents wouldn't let her have one. “He was going to send me a webcam so he would be able to see this 14-year-old girl,” said Det. MacFarlane. Though he initially used a nickname, the man made no effort to mask his web address or real identity, Det. MacFarlane said. He provided personal information and details about his life, including the fact he'd seen his daughter naked coming out of the shower, though he had never touched her. Sometimes when the man was using his webcam, Det. MacFarlane could see members of his family in the background. "This is how kind of weird it is: The last time he talked to me, his daughter comes home and her face is almost right in the camera,” he said. Det. MacFarlane said the man probably concealed the explicit chat screen and believes his wife and children knew nothing about his activities. That changed when Australian federal police showed up at his door early Wednesday morning. “They say he's going to plead guilty.”

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Former child abuse detective pleads guilty to 'grooming' teenager

September 8, 2009 -- Andrew Rowe, a former child abuse detective pleaded guilty to inciting a 15-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity via Facebook. Rowe, 31, who befriended his victim's family during his work with Staffordshire Police's child abuse investigation unit, admitted five sexual offences when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court by videolink. The charges included two of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, one of meeting a child following sexual grooming and one of sexual activity with a child. Rowe, formerly of Ashwood, Stoke-on-Trent, resigned from the Staffordshire force in April after being suspended from duty and appearing before magistrates in Burton-upon-Trent It is known that Rowe, who was remanded in custody pending the preparation of pre-sentence reports, sent hundreds of inappropriate messages to his victim, using both Facebook and a mobile phone. John Attwood, prosecuting, told the court: "This defendant engaged in what may be described as sexual grooming of this girl in a number of regards." Rowe, a former detective constable with 12 years' service, was based in Stafford. Staffordshire Police's Assistant Chief Constable, Marcus Beale, said after the hearing: "Andrew Rowe has admitted serious offences under the Sexual Offences Act and is rightly facing a significant prison sentence. He ingratiated himself with a family, then betrayed his young victim and her parents, who had placed their trust in him as a police officer and as a supposed friend. It is hard to imagine a more shocking abuse of position by an officer." Mr Beale, who disclosed that Rowe had tried to cover his tracks by deleting phone and computer evidence, added that every support had been given to the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons. The family of Rowe's victim, who was in court to hear his guilty pleas, issued a statement saying: "We would like to thank Staffordshire Police for all their help and support during this very difficult time. As an officer within the child abuse investigation unit, we regarded Andrew Rowe with the highest level of trust possible – a trust which he went on to completely abuse. The hardest thing at the beginning was the prospect of reporting a police officer to the police, wondering what level of support, if any, we would receive. We would now urge anybody who finds themselves in a similar situation to report the matter immediately, as we have received the highest level of help and support possible."

[Al-khiyal]

Families urged to do more over online predator threat

September 8, 2009 -- Parents are failing to educate themselves about how to protect their children from online sexual predators, according to a senior policeman. Jim Gamble, who works with a group responsible for child protection on the internet, said he was concerned few families checked on their children’s online activities. Mr Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, (Ceop), said the organisation was “simply not seeing” sufficient numbers of parents consulting its advice on how to protect their children online. “Parents should be looking out for their children’s activities online by simply talking to them. We know that social networking sites present a real risk to young people because predators are infiltrating them.” Mr Gamble said that predators “engage” with children online in a way that builds their confidence before attempting to lure them into the “real world”. He said: “There was a case several months ago. A young child lured from home and had the report not been made to us, the man en route with Viagra, handcuffs and a sexual intent to do harm to that child would have done terrible things. This isn’t about some academic issue, about images online, it is about predators that go there, that engage your children and try to lure them from it to abduct and sexually abuse them”. The Ceop report has shown almost 5,500 reports were received by the centre over the past 12 months, of which 2,500 came from members of the public using the organisation’s online “Ceop Report” button. Of these 1,373 were from young children of which 89% related specifically to instances of grooming of vulnerable children. Urging parents to visit www.ceop.police.uk, Mr Gamble said: “Parents are able to go online and book holidays, they are able to go online and compare insurance, they are able to go online and download iTunes. We are making all of our information available in exactly those formats.”

[Al-khiyal]

Yuma man arrested in Internet sex sting

September 8, 2009 -- A 55-year-old Yuma man who allegedly thought he was setting up a date with a 14-year-old girl was instead arrested by the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office. David Gardner was arrested August 29, as part of an effort by the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office's Internet Predator Unit to flush out online child sex predators. According to a news release issued by the sheriff's office, detectives from the Criminal Investigations Sections were posing online as an underage girl when they made contact with Gardner. During Internet chatroom conversions, which began several weeks ago, Gardner allegedly eventually agreed to meet the underage girl for sex. He also allegedly sent photos of his genitals to her. Then, on August 29, Gardner drove for a prearranged meeting at a Yavapai County park. When he arrived, deputies arrested him. According to the news release, when deputies searched Gardner's car, they found a laptop computer.

After the arrest, sheriff detectives discovered Gardner had rented a hotel room where he had planned to take the girl. Sheriff's detectives then obtained a search warrant for Gardner's room, where they found sex toys and alcohol, which were promised by Gardner to the girl during Internet chats and text messaging exchanges. A search warrant was also served at Gardner’s home in the 3900 block of West 20th Lane in Yuma, where they recovered two desktop computers and several electronic storage media devices. According to the news release, the contents are currently being examined. The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office and the Yuma Police Department assisted Yavapai County detectives in this case. Gardner is currently in the Camp Verde Detention Center and faces three counts of luring a minor for sexual exploitation. He is being held on a $500,000 bond. Additional charges are likely, according to the news release.

In April of this year, this team of Yavapai County detectives also completed an online computer investigation involving inappropriate sexual conversations with minors, including enticing minors for sex, and child pornography. The detective identified one suspect from Knoxville, Tennessee, who also supplied child pornography. With the cooperation of the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the U.S. Attorney's Office and Tennessee law enforcement, the predator was arrested. During the same month, Yavapai County detectives concluded another child predator investigation in which a detective portrayed a 12-year-old girl. The investigation, which lasted two months, resulted in the arrest of a Tucson man who met undercover detectives at a planned location in Yavapai County.

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Suspect travels from Brooklyn to Muncie to meet underage girl

MUNCIE, September 9, 2009 — A case of sexual misconduct with a teenager started in an Internet chat room and ended with Saturday's arrest of a Brooklyn, New York, man. Muncie police got a call about a couple having sex in Ball Park, at Macedonia Avenue and 16th Street, late Saturday, and found the suspect, Michael C. Iorio, 23, with a 15-year-old girl. Iorio told police he met the girl in an Internet chat room and continued to talk to her by cell phone. He came to Muncie by bus, was picked up by the girl's mother and stayed at their house, according to a probable cause affidavit. While Iorio admitted fondling the teenager, he denied having sex with her and claimed he was 18. Police preliminarily charged Iorio with sexual misconduct with a minor, a Class C felony. He was released after posting a $10,000 bond.

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FBI says man's kids in video

September 10, 2009 -- A Hilo man charged this week with producing child pornography allegedly made and sold videos that showed him having sex with his children, according to federal court records unsealed yesterday afternoon. The criminal complaint against Daniel G. Seguerre III said the investigation began in June when an FBI agent using a computer in Maryland made contact with Seguerre via the Internet, according to an FBI affidavit. The FBI agent found Seguerre on a "publicly available peer-to-peer file sharing program" on the Internet that was suspected of involvement in child pornography, the affidavit said. The agent was using an undercover identity and posed as a member of the file-sharing group, according to the affidavit. An individual with the username "Whatzmylove" — later identified as Seguerre — was offering to share files which appeared to contain child pornography, said the affidavit, written by FBI Special Agent Robert H. Kim. A subpoena served on the Internet service provider traced the user's address to a home on Puanaiko Street in Hilo, according to Kim's statement. On September 2, another FBI investigation in Oklahoma of the same "peer-to-peer network" resulted in the seizure of "videos and still images of a man sexually abusing young children," Kim's affidavit said. The Oklahoma suspect told the FBI the material came from Whatzmylove, the affidavit said. Whatzmylove told the Oklahoma suspect that "the videos depicted himself (Whatzmylove) with his own children," Kim said in the affidavit. Whatzmylove, also known to the Oklahoma man as "Danny Seg," said "that it is easy to get the children to comply with the abuse by giving them candy," according to the affidavit. Videos recovered by the FBI show the man alleged to be Seguerre molesting a prepubescent boy who "is screaming and crying, apparently in pain," the FBI agent reported. Another showed him molesting a girl "who appears to be under the age of five" and a third depicts him removing the diaper from a young girl before sexually assaulting her, the affidavit said. Two minor children were found in Seguerre's home when a large team of FBI agents raided it Sunday night. Toni Schwartz, spokeswoman with the state Department of Human Services, said Tuesday that the children have been placed in foster care and are safe. She declined further comment because of the ongoing investigation. Seguerre, 27, has previously been convicted of theft, forgery and contempt of court and is on probation for the theft and forgery offenses. Seguerre appeared briefly in federal court Tuesday and is being held without bail.

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Man arrested for underage Internet meet up

September 10, 2009 -- The Charlotte County Sheriffs Office has arrested a Delray Beach man for having sex with a 17-year-old in Punta Gorda. Deputies say 31-year-old John Haller first met the girl online and set up a meeting with her. Deputies then say Haller then took a Greyhound bus, last Thursday, to Punta Gorda for the meeting. According to an arrest report the girl met Haller at the Motel 6, off Jones-Loop Road where she stayed with him for four days. The girl's mother reported her daughter missing Monday and detectives say they tracked her down to the motel. He faces sixteen counts of sexual assault and twelve more for allegedly giving the girl prescription drugs.