blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/06/online_game_bec.htmlOnline Game Becomes Sexploitation Site
June 22, 2006 9:11 AM
Fiore Mastroianni Reports:
In an attempt to avoid traceable e-mails, pedophiles are using online games, including Sony's Everquest, to target and communicate with their victims, according to federal investigators.
Federal prosecutors in Illinois today announced the arrest of 40-year-old John Wayne Malone, of Pittsburgh, Texas, for using Everquest to lure a 14-year-old girl in Moline, Ill. into sending provocative, naked photos of herself and participating in online sex chats.
He was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and receiving pornographic material over the internet, officials said.
According to an affidavit filed in the case, Malone used the Everquest characters "Elveron" and "Bezapada" to make and continue contact with the girl.
"For how I feal [sic] about you I could go to jail for years," Malone wrote the girl, according to the affidavit.
"Technology provides child predators with more sophisticated and sinister methods," said United States Attorney Rodger A. Heaton of the Central District of Illinois, where Malone was charged.
U.S. postal inspectors were able to get records from the Sony online game computers in California revealing the communications.
"You have got me all turned on and only you and only you for a year now," Malone also wrote the girl, according to the affidavit.
The girl's father became aware of the communications and alerted federal authorities.
Malone was arrested on June 14 in Texas and released on bond. Reached at his home, he told ABC News he did not deny the allegations.
"They were a terrible mistake," Malone said. "I've always tried to make people happy, and I don't think of myself as a monster or a type of creature," Malone said.
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June 22, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (5)
User Comments
Is this guy kidding?
He's a child molester, but wants to "make people happy"?
Of course he doesnt think of himself as a monster, if he did, and had an ounce of common sense, he wouldnt be doing the depraved things he is trying to do..
We have to lock these morons up and throw away the key!
Posted by: tommyv | Jun 22, 2006 10:25:47 AM
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The only person he is trying to make happy is himself.
Posted by: Jackie | Jun 22, 2006 10:30:30 AM
You report like the internet is the only way that anyone over 18 talks to someone under 18 about sex! This is a joke! Teens talk about sex all the times. The whole idea that someone over 18 is not suppose to have sex with someone under 18 is the one of the most rediculous ideas I've ever heard of. No wonder this country is going down the tubes!
Posted by: JS | Jun 22, 2006 10:34:54 AM
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Everyday we are bombarded with news stories about pedophiles going after children on the internet. These people (pedophiles) are sick and need help. I blame the parents of the children. Parents today are giving their children these technology advanced devices (i.e. computers, cell phones etc.) and are not monitoring what they are being used for. What is really sad about this is that these young children are going on the computer, web cameras, cell phones etc. and looking for these relationships with these older men. What is happening in the homes of these children that would make them feel the need to look up a stranger and then go off and try to meet them? In some of the horrible cases it seems as if the young girls and young men were really turned on by these old sick men making these perverted comments to them. Again, what in the world is going on in the children's homes?
Posted by: Help our children | Jun 22, 2006 10:45:30 AM
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According to scientists, California is due for a massive earthquake day now- why not evacuate the decent folks and ship scumbag child porn peddlers & other forms of subhuman predators over there?
Posted by: Cindy Merrill | Jun 22, 2006 12:15:42 PM
Liz Woolley