Wacky Internet Predator Wednesday – #69
In our weekly round-up of pervs online, we showcase:
- A 21-year-old man from Nebraska at least 18 years in prison (on a 36 to 66 year sentence) for using MySpace to meet and sexually assault teenage girls, More than a dozen young girls came forward in the investigation. This man succeeded in doing what other Internet safety advocates want you think isn’t a reality.
- A 19-year-old man was found hiding in the closet of a 13-year-old girl he met on Facebook. The girl admitted to having sex with him and being in love. This is what parents don’t get: your kids WANT to meet older guys and have sex with them. Don’t be afraid of just the predators themselves – be afraid of your (naturally) risk-taking kids!
Of course, this is where PC Pandora comes into play. If a parent is using computer monitoring software like ours, they will know WHAT their kids are doing and WHO they are talking to on social networks. If you don’t know those two things – how can you be sure they are safe online?
November 24, 2009
Man imprisoned in MySpace sex case
By Leia Baez-Mendoza, WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERA 21-year-old Bellevue man will spend at least 18 years in prison for using MySpace to meet and sexually assault teenage girls.
Spencer Osler-White, 1609 Hancock St., pleaded no contest to first-degree sexual assault of a minor, attempted first-degree sexual assault, first-offense sexual assault of a child and attempted third-degree sexual assault of a child.
Sarpy County District Court Judge David Arterburn on Monday sentenced Osler-White to 36 years to 66 years in prison. He was given credit for 328 days already served.
Under state sentencing guidelines, Osler-White will have to serve at least 18 years before he is eligible for parole.
Osler-White also faced charges of forcible first-degree sexual assault, third-degree sexual assault of a child and attempted third-degree assault of a child, but those were dropped.
More than a dozen girls came forward during the investigation, said Det. Craig Wiech of the Bellevue Police Department.
According to court documents, some of the charges involved at least three people younger than 16.
Wiech has said the some of the victims were between the ages of 13 and 17 at the time of the incidents, which he said occurred between 2005 and mid-2008. Investigators have said that up to three of the victims met Osler-White on MySpace, a popular social networking Web site.
December 1, 2009
Facebook chats lead to arrest
Mom finds man, 19, in daughter’s closet
By Tammy Stables Battaglia, Free Press Staff WriterThe Detroit mother opened her 13-year-old daughter’s bedroom closet late Sunday night and found a surprised set of eyes staring back: a 19-year-old man her daughter had met on Facebook.
“I said, ‘Who are you?!’ and he looked at her,” the 32-year-old mother said Monday of her daughter, who was sitting on a bed across the room.
Detroit police spokesman John Roach said Monday night that Donald Hunter of Detroit is in the Wayne County Jail and that the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office approved seeking a warrant to charge Hunter with two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor’s Office, said she could not identify the suspect Monday night because she did not know whether the warrant had been signed by a magistrate. If so, the suspect could be arraigned as early as today.
The girl told police they had sex in the bedroom of her east-side home, where she hid him Saturday night and Sunday until her mother found him and detained him until cops arrived, police said.
On Monday, the girl’s mother heatedly explained that she tried to stop the relationship after the pair met online last year and she thought the boy was just 15. She canceled her daughter’s Internet service, shut off the girl’s cell phone and pulled her out of one school for another.
As her mother spoke, the girl called the man her first boyfriend.
I hope “I get blamed for it and he don’t go to jail,” the quiet teen said. The case has those who deal with teens again waving warning flags about children using sites like Facebook and MySpace.
“This case illustrates that we must be diligent about monitoring what our children are doing on the Web,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Monday.
Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans said in a statement Monday that “an iron-clad condition” of a child being allowed to use the Internet should be for the parent to know the passwords to their child’s e-mail and social networking accounts.
Birmingham psychologist Aldona Valivonis, who specializes in treating adolescents, said Facebook gives users the ability to create the person they want to be — accurate or not.
“I think Facebook really opens people up to danger,” she said. “They just say ‘I want to be your friend.’ … but they’re not necessarily all your friends.”
