Mxit services used to lure and capture sexual predator
By Tarryn Le Chat
18 October 2006
Police have used a cell phone-based messaging service to arrest a sexual predator who lured an underage school girl using the same service.
The 33-year-old man – whose name has not been revealed – abducted the 16-year-old girl for five days. He had apparently developed a cyber relationship with her through Mxit, the popular messaging service used mostly by teenagers.
According to police, the West Rand man lured the girl by cellphone, slowly gaining her confidence until she made the mistake of giving him her home address.
Last week Tuesday, the man arrived at the girl’s home on the Welgedacht plots in Springs, Ekurhuleni and kidnapped her metres away form her front door.
The girl, who cannot be named, was held captive for five days at the man’s home in the West Rand in Johannesburg.
On Sunday the girl escaped and fled to a nearby suburb where she contacted the police.
The police suspect she may have been sexually assaulted. The girl told detectives that she had met the man on Mxit.
The detectives then used the text messaging service (Mxit) to lure and capture the man after pretending to be a teenage girl.
The man was arrested at a venue in Randfontein on Monday.
He appeared in the Springs Magistrate Court where he was charged with abduction.
Picture: www.defza.com
18 October 2006
Police have used a cell phone-based messaging service to arrest a sexual predator who lured an underage school girl using the same service.
The 33-year-old man – whose name has not been revealed – abducted the 16-year-old girl for five days. He had apparently developed a cyber relationship with her through Mxit, the popular messaging service used mostly by teenagers.
According to police, the West Rand man lured the girl by cellphone, slowly gaining her confidence until she made the mistake of giving him her home address.
Last week Tuesday, the man arrived at the girl’s home on the Welgedacht plots in Springs, Ekurhuleni and kidnapped her metres away form her front door.
The girl, who cannot be named, was held captive for five days at the man’s home in the West Rand in Johannesburg.
On Sunday the girl escaped and fled to a nearby suburb where she contacted the police.
The police suspect she may have been sexually assaulted. The girl told detectives that she had met the man on Mxit.
The detectives then used the text messaging service (Mxit) to lure and capture the man after pretending to be a teenage girl.
The man was arrested at a venue in Randfontein on Monday.
He appeared in the Springs Magistrate Court where he was charged with abduction.
Picture: www.defza.com
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