Wacky Internet Predator Wednesday: Part 9b
More reasons for parents to use software like PC Pandora to monitor their child’s Internet activity. It will take the guesswork out of 21st century parenting and allow you to be a more efficient and proactive parent.
Here are the 2 stories with links:
Police identify man charged in Internet sex sting
By Eric Connor, STAFF WRITER, July 9, 2008
A 27-year-old Anderson man has been arrested and charged with trying to solicit sex with a child over the internet.
Anderson Police arrested Matthew Wrenn Althaus, 107 Woodland Drive Apt. A, last week on two counts of criminal solicitation of a minor after a sting involving the police department and the state attorney general’s task force on internet predators, according to arrest warrants and a release from the attorney general’s office.
Beginning in December 2006, Althaus communicated with whom he believed to be a 13-year-old but was in reality an Anderson police officer, according to the release.
Althaus is charged in warrants with communicating with fictitious child via instant messaging twice in late May “to engage in sexual activity.”
Search warrants executed at the Althaus’ residence resulted in the seizure of a laptop computer and computer-related equipment, according to the release.
Althaus is being held in the Anderson County jail.
PITTSBURGH — Authorities said an Allegheny County man allegedly used Internet chat rooms to approach what he believed were 13- or 14-year-old girls — but the girls were really undercover members of the Attorney General’s office using the online profiles of children. 
Attorney General Tom Corbett announced Tuesday that agents from the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit arrested Theodore E. Morgan, 55, of White Oak.
Corbett said the Morgan, who was 55 years old at the time, repeatedly posed as a teenager online – at one point declaring that he had to end an online chat because his mother had returned home. Morgan also allegedly instructed the girl to masturbate and sent her additional nude webcam videos.
Corbett said that Morgan, using the screen name “dongkong14,” allegedly approached an undercover agent in an Internet chat room – initially identifying himself as a 17-year-old boy from the Pittsburgh area.
According to the criminal complaint, Morgan quickly requested a photograph of the child and then began questioning her about her sexual experience – asking her is she had ever masturbated or engaged in oral sex. Morgan also allegedly sent the girl a webcam video that allegedly showed him partially nude and masturbating in front of his computer.
Corbett said the Morgan repeatedly posed as a teenager online – at one point declaring that he had to end an online chat because his mother had returned home. Morgan also allegedly instructed the girl to masturbate.
Morgan was arrested at his home on July 3rd by agents from the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit, assisted by the White Oak Police Department. Agents also executed a search warrant at Morgan’s home, seizing a computer, two webcams and various data storage devices. Those items will be analyzed by the Attorney General’s Computer Forensics Unit as part of an ongoing investigation.
Morgan waived his preliminarily hearing on July 7th, in Allegheny County Central Court. Morgan was ordered to undergo a behavioral analysis and is prohibited from using the Internet or having any unsupervised contact with minors. He is currently being held in the Allegheny County Prison in lieu of $30,000 bail, awaiting a trial date.
Corbett said that Morgan will be prosecuted in Allegheny County by Deputy Attorney General William Caye II of the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit.
Corbett thanked the White Oak Police Department for their cooperation and assistance with this investigation.
The Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit has arrested 149 Internet predators since it was created in January 2005, including 33 arrests since the beginning of this year.
