Wacky Internet Predator Wednesday – XXX (that stands for ‘30’ …not the other thing)
The 30th entry for this series of blog posts! Let’s keep things ripe and going with four more reasons you need to make sure your kids aren’t talking to predators. All this crap about fears overblown… really? Well in this report, 3 of my 4 pervs actually DID contact real kids. Read for yourself.
Don’t be ignorant. Don’t think the fears are overblown and that this isn’t an issue. It is. You don’t have to run for the hills, you just need to be smart!
Use PC Pandora computer monitoring software in your home to make sure your kids are staying safe when they go online and make friends. If you aren’t monitoring internet activity, you are leaving the door open for bad things. It’s not a definite – stats show that – but the possibility is there and that is what you need to remember.
Anyway, here are the summaries. Detailed stories and their home links follow. Enjoy!
- A 52-year-old Florida man was arrested for having online sex chats with a 15-year-old girl in Idaho. This was a real girl. The father caught on and notified authorities… The 52-year-old told the girl he was a 21-year-old police officer. Still think predators aren’t a real threat?
- A 45-year-old New York man was arrested for using the Internet to send sexually explicit webcam videos to what he believed was a 13-year-old girl from suburban Philadelphia. The “girl” was actually an undercover agent…
- A 28-year-old pilot from Minnesota was arrested for flying to Houston TX to meet a 12-year-old boy whom he had been in contact with (many sexual conversations) since the fall. He used quite an interesting technique to make sure the boy wasn’t a cop… which he wasn’t. This was another REAL child and REAL predator.
- A 58-year-old man from Illinois arrested in 2005 for soliciting kids and possessing child pornography was sentenced to 4 years in the big house this week. Why did it take 3.5 years to put this guy away?
MOSCOW (Idaho) – The internet can be a way to keep in touch with loved ones, but it’s also a way for sexual predators to prey on children.
And every parent’s worst nightmare became a reality for one Moscow family.
“Back in March we received information from a father who was concerned about chatting that was occurring at his house with his daughter,” said Moscow Assistant Police Chief David Duke. “He had actually talked with a person who represented themselves as a 21-year-old male out of Florida who said he was a police officer. But when he did follow up on some of the information, he couldn’t verify it, so he contacted our department.”
The Florida man’s victim is a 15-year-old girl. Duke said his department launched an investigation after the tip, and with the help of the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, proved what they already feared to be true.
“The ensuing investigation revealed that this person wasn’t actually 21 but a 51-year-old male,” said Duke. “They had been chatting for three years and during the last eight months, it had escalated into cyber sexual activity.”
Duke said William Stevens, now 52, is free on bond after pleading guilty Wednesday in Federal Court to using interstate facilities to transmit information about a minor and conspiracy to misuse a controlled substance.
“During their conversations through blogging, he encouraged the victim to use the schedule four drug Ambien on the mother so she would pass out and they could continue this blogging without her knowledge,” said Duke.
Duke said Stevens also told the teen that he loved her and wanted to take her away. He confessed the crimes to police, which resulted in Wednesday’s plea. Duke said although the two never met, there was clear intent to do so. Duke said you need to know what your kids are doing online.
“Understand what your child is doing on the computer,” said Duke. “In this information age, the child wants secrecy while they’re doing it because they want their privacy protected. What we encourage is that the parents have an open dialogue with the child. Who they’re chatting with, where they’re on the computer all the time.”
Duke said Steven’s sentencing will be in mid April and said he could serve up to 12 years behind bars.
Jan 24, 2009
Child Predator Unit Nabs NY Man
1490-AM news blogAttorney General Tom Corbett announced that agents from the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit have arrested an upstate New York man accused of using the Internet to send sexually explicit webcam videos to what he believed was a 13-year-old girl from suburban Philadelphia. The “girl” was actually an undercover agent who was using the online profile of a young girl.
Corbett identified the defendant as Richard Lynn Alred, 45, 603 Hillingdon Way, Horseheads, NY.
Corbett said that Alred, a technician for a fire equipment company, allegedly used preteen Internet chat rooms to approach an undercover agent from the Child Predator Unit. During these initial chats, Alred allegedly used several different screen names and posed as teenage boys.
According to the criminal complaint, Alred repeatedly asked the undercover agents to send him nude photos, commenting, “I would love to see you with your shirt off and your bra off.” At one point Alred allegedly offered to give the girl a digital camera or webcam so that she could send nude photos, telling her, “I can mail it to you,” and “I will get you a webcam.”
Corbett said that Alred expressed a desire to meet the girl for sex, stating, “I wanna take your clothes off,” and, “I want you to be in my bed.” He also allegedly described in graphic detail the sex acts he wished to perform with the girl and sent several webcam videos that showed him nude and masturbating in front of his computer.
Alred was taken into custody in Elmira, NY, on Thursday, January 22nd, by New York State Police, assisting the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit. He waived extradition in New York and was transported to Montgomery County, PA, where he was formally charged.
A search warrant executed at Alred’s home resulted in the seizure of two computers, along with several digital cameras and webcam and various data storage devices. These items will be analyzed by the Attorney General’s Computer Forensics Unit as part of an ongoing investigation.
Alred is charged with six counts of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a computer, all third-degree felonies which are each punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 fines.
Alred was preliminarily arraigned in Montgomery County on January 23rd, before Limerick Magisterial District Judge Walter Gadzicki and lodged in the Montgomery County Jail in lieu of $75,000 cash bail. He was also ordered to have no unsupervised contact with minors and is prohibited from using the Internet. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 29th, at 10 a.m., before Collegeville Magisterial District Judge Benjamin Crahalla.
Corbett thanked the New York State Police, Horseheads Barracks, for their cooperation and assistance with this investigation.
Corbett said that since its creation in January 2005, the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit has arrested 186 men from across Pennsylvania, along with several other states, all accused of using the Internet to attempt to sexually exploit children.
“Predators are using popular websites to search for potential victims, in many cases sending sexually graphic messages or photos during their first chats,” Corbett said. “It is essential for parents to regularly discuss online safety with their children and encourage teens and pre-teens to immediately report anyone who tries to send them sexually explicit messages, photos or videos.”
Corbett said that some predators try to arrange meetings with kids, while others send nude photos or sexually explicit videos – often within the first few minutes of an initial online chat. Computer and cell phone technology makes it fast and easy to send messages or images, and many of the men arrested by the Child Predator Unit began sexually graphic discussions during their first online conversations with what they believed were children.
Corbett added that colder temperatures have increased the online activity of both children and Internet predators. Over the past four weeks agents from the Child Predator Unit have made nine arrests, and agents have made a total of 36 arrests so far this fall and winter.
Steven Donald Anderson, 28, was charged Saturday with two counts of online solicitation of a child.
A pilot accused of being a predator and flying to Houston last weekend to meet a 12-year-old boy used a new technique to ensure the child was not an undercover officer, officials said Monday.
Steven Donald Anderson, a 28-year-old pilot from Minnesota, asked the boy to send him a picture doing something unique, like holding up a sign with his name or wearing a certain color T-shirt, Harris County prosecutor Eric Devlin said.
Devlin wouldn’t say what Anderson asked the boy to do in his pose, but said it wasn’t sexual. He said the boy sent the picture as asked. Anderson is charged with solicitation of a minor.
Devlin said sexual predators use the evasive maneuver to find police who are looking for predators. He said cyber crime investigators have noted the move in other places, but that this is the first time police have seen it in Harris County.
“It causes us great concern,” Devlin said. He said officers generally have pictures of children they can use, but don’t have access to children for specific poses.
During Anderson’s arraignment Monday in state District Judge Marc Carter’s court, Devlin said Anderson had been sending sexually explicit text messages to the boy since fall.
Anderson’s court-appointed attorney, Jerald Graber, said he called Anderson’s parents to let them know their son had been arrested.
“They were very surprised,” Graber said. “They said he had never been in trouble with police before.”
Sgt. Gary Spurger, with the Harris County Precinct 4 constable’s computer crime unit, said Anderson was shocked when deputies were waiting as he pulled up to the youth’s northwest Harris County home Friday.
Anderson remains in Harris County Jail .
The boy’s teacher at Spillane Middle School caught him last week sending text messages on his BlackBerry during class, officials said. After reading some of the messages that investigators said Anderson sent to the boy, she reported the incident to school authorities, who notified police.
In his own words, David M. Pieper called himself the “Big Bad Wolf” while talking with young girls about sex on the Internet.
Now he has a new label – convicted sex offender.
The 58-year-old former Naperville man was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for possessing child pornography.
Prosecutor Ken Tatarelis said a forensic examination of Pieper’s computers showed he had contact with hundreds of girls, some as young as 9, in Internet chat rooms and often initiated sexual conversations.
Authorities still are trying to locate many of the girls.
Pieper was arrested Aug. 16, 2005, in Carmel, Ind., on child solicitation charges after police said he traveled from Naperville for a sexual rendezvous with a 13-year-old girl he chatted with on the Internet for two months.
That girl turned out to be an uncover cop, who was waiting for Pieper when he arrived at the ice cream shop where they agreed to meet.
Pieper denied he planned to have sex with the girl. Rather, he told authorities he has a psychology degree and liked to reach out to help troubled youths.
Police found condoms and lubricant in his motel room.
Afterward, detectives searched Pieper’s house on Pebblewood Trail in Naperville and at the Downers Grove office where he worked as a computer programmer.
Naperville Detective Richard Wistocki testified they recovered printed images of child porn in the defendant’s home. Later, after an extensive forensic examination of his computers, police found more child porn and sexual Internet chats with girls.
Pieper pleaded guilty in both cases and will be sentenced March 20 in Indiana. Judge Kathryn Creswell sentenced him Monday in DuPage County.
“I regard my behavior as immoral and reprehensible,” Pieper said. “I understand that and make no excuses for it. In the last three years, I have re-established my Christian faith. I’ve become my own worst judge …”
In seeking a prison term, Tatarelis read in court parts of Pieper’s Internet chats. Pieper said he felt like the “Big Bad Wolf after a shy, innocent lamb.” He told a girl he was old enough to be her grandfather and that many people would consider him “evil.”
He also cautioned a girl against telling anyone because he “didn’t want the FBI knocking on my door.” Pieper often told the girls he wanted them to come live with him and be his “sex slave.”
“He’s a pedophile,” Tatarelis said. “He solicited hundreds of very vulnerable, unstable girls with unstable family lives who are perfect victims for a predator.”
Pieper, whose most recent address was in Georgia, faced probation or up to five years in prison. He did not have a prior criminal record.
The Naperville Police Department is co-hosting a free community forum 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday to teach parents tips to protect their children from Internet predators. The forum will be held in the city council chambers of the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle St., in Naperville. No one under 18 may attend due to mature content. For more information, call Sgt. Bill Davis at (630) 305-5951.
