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In February 2000, a thirty-three-year-old man made contact with my friend’s cousin of twelve year old in a chatroom . At first the send e-mail everyday to each other over a two-month period and then to regular conversations on a mobile phone. In this way my friend’s cousin was groomed from this initial chatroom contact to the point where she actually meet the man offline and to the point where she was sexually assaulted.

After the original contact in a chatroom, through a clever and persistent process of persuasion via email and then mobile phone, the man convinced my friend’s cousin that he was in love with her. At first she resisted his requests for a meeting but finally she gave in to his pressure and agreed to meet him in a public place. The man arrived by car, introduced himself to my cousin friend and drove her to his flat many miles away where he began a series of indecent assaults.

After four meetings in quick succession, was my friend’s cousin broke down and told everything to her mother. Her parents were shocked and immediately told the police. Some days passed before the man was arrested, and pending further investigation and the result of the laboratory analysis of his computer, he was released on bail.

Within days he had used the computer at his place of work to contact another underage girl and, using similar tactics, drove hundreds of miles across the country to commit a similar assault. The man’s work colleagues discovered some disturbing emails and tipped off the police who mounted a surveillance operation and rearrested him, just as the next young victim was getting into his car. The police arrested the man and he was charged with sexual assault and possession of child pornography. He was later found guilty and sent to prison.