A MAJOR police investigation is under way after at least 20 Jersey schoolgirls were targeted by a suspected predatory internet paedophile.
The unidentified man is believed to have tried to groom the youngsters – all aged between ten and 15 – over the last few years by stalking social networking sites.
It is understood that the States police investigation has been under way for some time, but details of the inquiry were made public only yesterday.
Parents are now being warned to be vigilant and check the details of the people their children are contacting on the internet. In a statement released to the JEP yesterday, Detective Inspector Mark Houzé, of the States police public protection unit, said: ‘The exact number of children who have been contacted is still being established, but we can confirm we have spoken to about 20 girls.
Article posted on 28th March, 2009 - 10.00am
16 Article Comments
So much for all the high profile media disclosure that talks about watching what your kids do on the computer.
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This is a good reminder: where is the paedophile law Jersey promised by the end of the year 2008? Why? Jersey remains a haven for these as parents still have no rights whatsoever to know whether a paedophile lives nearby.
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Indeed why no paedophile register yet? Why haven’t the authorities sorted this out?
Also why aren’t parents keeping an eye on what their children are up to? Nasty things can happen because of the internet.
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As usual Jersey is lagging behind on the really important stuff. Our elected members seem to be too busy abusing each other to give a toss.
Oh and yes…blame the parents…must be their fault. What are you on??
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It’s good to be reminded to be vigilant but computers in public rooms of the house is surely one of the best methods of prevention. Even ‘angelic’ kids will be curious about stuff on the web and people that contact them, kids are by nature inquisitive and worry about missing out on ‘opportunities’.
It’s our duty to protect these kids as best we can, even if that means seeming a bit boring or strict. It’s preferable to the alternative!
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So this is new news is it? These pedophile stalkers have been on the net ever since they invented the darn thing. How many of the predators are around the world attempting to groom kids? 20,000 maybe? There was only a case recently of some perv of 50 taking a 15 year old to France from chat rooms in the UK. America is rife with them. Check out youtube.
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The internet is easily blamed for everything – between the ages of 11 and 16 I met a lot of people on the internet – however my mother always knew where I would meet these people and more often than not she’d come with me in the car and make sure everything was alright.
The internet is a wonderful way for people to get to meet each other – especially if you’re a child who isn’t very popular at school – please you do gooders out there – don’t take it away from them!
A message to parents – if your child is using the internet don’t try to bog down on it as thats how children get into trouble – they don’t think they can trust you so they go to meet people from the internet on their own. If you maintain an open relationship with your child they will trust you and if your child is thinking of meeting someone from the internet try to encourage them to meet in a public place so you can keep an eye on them and make sure it’s legit.
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I agree with Adrian
What are the parents doing.
If a child is old enough to be left alone on the internet its old enough to be taught about sex and perverts.
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as a student of Grainville i think that the police should of started to hunt for pedo’s a long time ago, by now loads of girls and boys could have been raiped by now because sites like facebook and MSN aren’t agsatly protected. if they were pedo’s would be court straight away.
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The authorities never keep their promises!! After all the recent news on abuse in jersey you would think they would buck up their idea’s!!
Fingers crossed they catch the the man/people who are doing this!!!!
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Maybe it is because some parents are being vigilant, and because of the high profile media surrounding the internet and it’s dangers that the police have been alerted to this guy.
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Parents monitor such things and report to the authorities!! We did this weeks ago when we discovered some grooming material to our youngest. Supplied the lot to police. It contained name, mobile number and some real incriminating evidence as the conversations had progressed. Anything happened?? Not as far as I know. We lost the family PCs and sons mobile phone but no court action as yet. I live in hope. Be vigilant but do not expect fast results!!
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Sparky. I can understand your frustration that results aren’t instant, however, it can take weeks or months to build a case and every piece of evidence scrutinized to make sure a conviction is secured.
I would rather a time consuming process and seeing the perpertrator locked up, than getting away with it becuase something vital was missed because it was rushed to court.
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Sparky – don’t expect anything soon! They took my PC for months and never actually gave it back when I was 14 – when I asked them about it they kept fobbing me off and eventually i got someone else’s computer back
i hope you backed up your files…
Hopefully Syvret will be all over this case
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This is a scary subject and I’m just glad that when my children were growing up hardly anyone had a computer in their house! I agree that Jersey is seriously lacking in not having a sex offenders register- is that because it might be like admitting that some nasty people are actually living on the island thus spoiling the image of the paradise island?
Sparky (no 12) give the police some time as these things are probably very time consuming but keep on the case! Hopefully things have changed since I was a child but I remember a man being reported to the police for exposing himself to children (always in a certain area of Jersey)and he was obviously from a local firm as his van was parked nearby on every occasion.Yet no prosecution ever followed although tracking him down would have been simple.Makes you wonder doesn’t it?
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Lula, the last thing you want is Syvret all over this case. If there is one man in the island that doesn’t know the first thing about Child Protection, it is him.
If Syvret were to be involved, he’d have confidential information, witness statements and a whole list of names randonmly pulled out of a hat as potential offenders all over his blog ensuring that any real perpertrators would get away with it. Again!
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