Online sex offenders tracked

[Al-khiyal]

San Francisco man accused of sexual assault on girl, 12

BISHOP, September 11, 2009 — A 21-year-old man from San Francisco is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old Bishop girl who authorities say he met on the Internet. Authorities say the man met the girl on a popular social networking site and then traveled to Texas to meet her Sunday. Boris Eduardivich Babadzhanov, who was arrested Monday by Bishop police, was being held in the Nueces County Jail Friday on suspicion of indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault with bonds totaling $650,000. The Texas Rangers and the Bishop Police Department are conducting a joint investigation, according to a news release from the Department of Public Safety.

[Al-khiyal]

Rugby referee jailed over child porn

September 11, 2009 -- A rugby referee has been jailed for 10 months after more than 700 indecent images of children were found on his computer. Richard Bullock, 50, of Newbold, near Leicester, and formerly of Barmouth, Gwynedd, admitted making, possessing and distributing the pictures. Caernarfon Crown Court heard that Bullock had also posed as a 12-year-old girl in an internet chatroom. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years. Bullock was also disqualified from working with children indefinitely. When questioned by police, the court heard that Bullock suggested he may have been set up by his wife or child. But he eventually admitted making, possessing and distributing indecent images, which the prosecution said showed children aged from a few months to 13 years old. Judge Philip Hughes said: "It's an unattractive feature of your response, having been found out, that you appear to have tried to offload the blame on to others who had access to your computer. The mischief this kind of offending creates is it involves the exploitation of young children. It encourages and fuels the demand for child pornography. Only a custodial sentence can be justified." The court heard how Bullock had posed as a 12-year-old girl in an internet chatroom, and was then inundated with images. Gareth Preston, prosecuting, said Bullock twice e-mailed a picture of a naked child to someone. John Wyn Williams, for Bullock, said his client was a high-profile referee, and had held a responsible post with HSBC but had since resigned. Mr Williams said Bullock married in November 2006, but the marriage was "doomed to failure." When he bought a house in Barmouth he lost his social circle and became depressed. He drank too much and offended. "It's very difficult for him to explain why he did it. It may be he was going through a crisis in his life. He's extremely sorry," said Mr Williams.

[Al-khiyal]

Girl missing after online romance with Nigerian

CHENNAI, September 12, 2009: The involvement of Nigerians in phishing and other online financial frauds is so well documented that the genre of crimes that began in the early 1980s is named the Nigerian scam. Now, Chennai police are searching for a Nigerian for online fishing of a different kind. A 54-year-old man from Pattabhiram on Friday approached the police with a complaint that his 21-year-old daughter was missing and that he suspected a Nigerian named King has kidnapped her. The foreigner, he said, had been chatting with her on the internet for several months. Vanitha (not the real name), the missing woman, was at home after completing her graduation in social work from a city college. She used to spend long hours in front of the computer. In one of the chat rooms, she met the man who introduced himself as King alias Dasingh from Nigeria, now settled in Delhi. "My daughter has gone missing since Friday. I have reasons to believe that the Nigerian has kidnapped her," the parents told the police. The police, however, have filed only a case of a missing person. They said it appears to be a case of elopement, as the father has also complained that the woman has taken with her Rs 2 lakh worth of gold jewellery. A police officer said that there was an earlier complaint from the woman's father who claimed that the Nigerian was troubling his daughter. "On questioning, she told us that she was in love with the Nigerian and that she, as an adult, has the right to chose her man. It is clear that they have eloped. However, we are trying to trace the couple based on the complaint," the police officer said. According to Vanitha's father, she was in her night dress and had retired to bed after dinner. In the morning, Vanitha was not to be seen and the backdoor of the house was found ajar. Police said the woman must have been wearing her night dress over another dress and had packed up to escape after her parents went to bed. "From preliminary inquiries, we feel she must have taken the 3.30 am Avadi- Chennai Central train to Central, where she must have met the man," the officer said. One of Vanitha's friends, when questioned by the police, said Vanitha used to talk a lot about King, her Nigerian boyfriend.

[Al-khiyal]

Student 'groomed under-age girls for sex'

September 12, 2009 -- A Lincoln University student has denied using the social networking site Bebo to groom under-age girls for sex. George McClelland, 25, admitted travelling to Boston and Sleaford to meet two teenage girls after having sexual conversations with them on the Internet. But McClelland, giving evidence at Lincoln Crown Court, insisted he was "depressed and lonely," and only wanted to talk to the girls. It is alleged McClelland "pressed" the girls to meet up after encouraging them to send him pictures in their underwear. The jury heard McClelland also asked the girls about their bra size and told another young teenager that he was a model photographer. Julie Warburton, prosecuting, told the jury McClelland was able to contact the girls through Bebo, a social networking website similar to Facebook on which young people put profiles of themselves. "The girls had put up personal details, including their ages. He contacted girls aged 13, 14 and 15." George McClelland, 25, now of Healey Avenue, High Wycombe, denies four charges of meeting a child following sexual grooming between March and June, 2008. The trial continues.

[Al-khiyal]

Sadistic chef who raped web surfer gets 10 years

October 29, 2009 -- A Moroccan chef who raped a woman during a horrific overnight sex ordeal in his flat after she arranged to stay with him through an internet hospitality website has been jailed for 10 years. Abdelali Nachet's victim had contacted him through couchsurfing.com which she had already successfully used to gain free accommodation on her travels in Europe. But on the night the 29-year-old from Hong Kong arrived at Nachet's Leeds address in March this year he attacked her. Jailing him yesterday Recorder of Leeds Judge Peter Collier QC said the 34-year-old subjected her "to a prolonged and persistent sexual assault. You used physical power and emotional blackmail to ensure she complied with all your physical demands upon her. For several hours you forced her to suffer indignity after indignity and violated her again and again."

Nachet was found guilty by a jury by an 11-1 majority on two charges of raping the woman and one of sexual assault following a retrial. As the verdicts were being given at Leeds Crown Court, he collapsed in the dock and began wailing hysterically. Security officers had to drag him from court. After an adjournment all the jury chose to return to see him sentenced. It was then the judge revealed to them the victim had already given evidence at the previous trial, when a jury had failed to reach a verdict. He told Nachet: "You caused her to travel half way across the world on two occasions to give evidence against you and in the course of that you alleged she, not you, were the sexual predator. This jury has seen through that." He said that when Nachet's partner left him, the chef planned to use the couchsurfing.com website to attract women to his flat and, having heard of his behaviour towards two of them and in court, told him: "I'm satisfied you believed you were irresistible to women. The attack was an abuse of trust of those who sign up to the social networking site to come and stay with you at your home."

During the trial the jury heard Nachet signed up to the site saying he liked to meet new people and offer them the best of Moroccan hospitality. Simon Phillips, prosecuting, said the website let travellers find free accommodation with like-minded individuals. "It is well known on an international basis." The victim trusted the website having previously stayed with people in other European countries including single men without incident. She decided to visit Leeds and contacted Nachet, a part-time chef at a restaurant in Chapel Allerton, agreeing to stay with him after an exchange of e-mails. He met her when she arrived from Birmingham by bus and took her back to his home in Cranmer Bank, Moortown. After a meal he put on music and began dancing, wanting her to join him. She told him she was not very good and he offered to show her but when he began dancing close she told him she needed to go on the internet to make future arrangements.

Later he invited her to look at some family photographs in his room but when she went in he turned off the light and told her he wanted sex with her. When she told him she did not he threatened to kill her and himself if she did not comply and went on to rape and sexually abuse her. He also made her take a bath to get rid of incriminating forensic evidence. She told the jury she feared for her life. She only reported the matter after she left the following morning and returned to the Midlands, revealing her ordeal to someone she had previously met on couchsurfing.com. Nachet denied attacking her and claimed she had willingly had sex with him. After he was sentenced Nachet shouted: "I just want to go back to my country please. I want to be sentenced in Morocco. This is not right you know."

[Al-khiyal]

Wife posed as girl to trap her paedophile husband

November 12, 2009 -- A wife posed as a teenage girl to trap her paedophile husband on the internet. Former pub licensee David Anthony Roberts, 69, sat in front of his computer webcam thinking there was a 14-year-old child looking at him. “What he didn’t realise until long after police had arrested and interviewed him was that the person watching was his own wife, who was on her computer in the next room,” prosecutor Martyn Kelly told Cardiff Crown Court yesterday.

Cheryl Roberts had been married to the man psychiatrists now say might have a brain disorder, which causes him to be an exhibitionist, for almost 20 years. But she became suspicious in 2008 about the amount of time he was spending in front of his computer screen. When the machine pinged one day, while he was out, she read the message which had popped up, Mr Kelly told the court. It was signed Corky – a name she knew her husband used for himself.

“As a result of what she found, she went to her own computer and created profiles of girls aged 14 and 15 on a site known as Bearshare and was able to start having conversations with her husband, as a young girl. In the sexual talk which followed, he asked the person he believed was 14 years old to have sex with him. He didn’t realise that his audience was his own wife in another room of their home in Pant Street, Pantygog, Bridgend.”

Mrs Roberts called the NSPCC and then the police and the couple are now divorced. When police searched his computer, they found indecent images of children. At a police station – before his wife’s part in his downfall had been revealed to him – the pensioner admitted he would have been prepared to have sex with the 14-year-old in the computer chat room, if she agreed to meet up with him. He also told his wife he couldn’t stop himself behaving the way he did and in later interviews with a probation officer was said to have failed to appreciate how serious it all was.

Passing sentence, Judge Christopher Vosper QC said all that concerned him a great deal, but any jail sentence he was able to pass on Roberts would not be long enough for him to get the treatment he needed. So instead he passed a three-year community order, with compulsory attendance on a sex offenders’ programme. “I think that way the public will be better protected,” the judge told him. He also put Roberts, who has no previous convictions, on the sex offenders’ register for five years and ordered him not to have future internet contact with anyone under 18.

Defence barrister Byron Broadstock said Roberts had been going through a dark patch at the time – his marriage was breaking down and any intimacy in his life was a dim and distant memory. “He was confronting old age with deteriorating health including angina and arthritis,” he said. “He’s brought shame on himself and his family although both his children and step children have been supportive. He himself is anxious to know why he behaved this way and would welcome treatment.” Roberts pleaded guilty to eight charges including making and possessing indecent images of children and attempting to engage in a sexual act in the presence of a child.

[Al-khiyal]

Texas man sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for child pornography charges

Washington, December 30, 2010 -- A man from central Texas was sentenced on Friday to more than 24 years in prison and lifetime supervised release following his prison term for advertising and possessing child pornography. This significant sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer and U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas John E. Murphy. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mark Edwin Cairnes, 51, of Jonestown, Texas, pleaded guilty on September 25 before U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin, Texas, to one count of advertising child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. Judge Sparks sentenced Cairnes on December 18 to 292 months in federal prison. As part of his plea agreement, Cairnes admitted to being a member of an Internet-based bulletin board group dedicated to trading child pornography. The group could only be accessed by using a unique username and password. The groups had very detailed rules for behavior, including requiring all members to post only pornographic images or videos depicting minors under the age of 18. Members were also required to post their images or videos in pre-established categories based on the type of material, such as the hardcore category, which contained only images or links to images that depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit acts with either adults or other minors.

Cairnes admitted he was an active participant on the bulletin board and that his involvement dated from October 2006. He also admitted that on some occasions he made requests for images and videos of child pornography by name or by providing “sample images” of the material he sought. Cairnes also admitted to commenting on the quality of the child pornography he received from other members, and expressing his gratification upon seeing the images and videos of child pornography, some of which depicted very young children. Through his plea, Cairnes also admitted to possessing tens of thousands of images of child pornography, including images of the sexual abuse of infants and images of children engaged in sadistic and masochistic abuse.

Cairnes was identified through “Operation Joint Hammer,” the U.S. component of an ongoing global enforcement operation targeting transnational rings of child pornographers. The operation has led to the arrest of more than 60 people in the United States involved in the trade of child pornography. Operation Joint Hammer was initiated through evidence developed by European law enforcement and shared with U.S. counterparts by Europol and Interpol. The European portion of this global enforcement effort, “Operation Koala,” was launched after the discovery of the activities of several people in Europe who were abusing children and producing photographs of the abuse for commercial gain. Further investigation unveiled a number of online child pornography rings. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew B. Devlin, Western District of Texas, and Trial Attorney Alecia Riewerts Wolak of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. ICE conducted the investigation. This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 12,000 individuals.