http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0208/500255.html
Man Charged With Criminal Solicitation Of A Minor February 29, 2008 - Goose Creek, SC Reporter: Sarah DeMarco A man is charged with criminal solicitation of a minor, after he made inappropriate comments on her myspace page. Clifton Reed Jr. and the 14-year-old girl met at a Jehovah's Witness social gathering. Friday Reed was charged. Police say he was soliciting sex from a 14-year-old, both online and over the phone.
Parents often tell their kids not to speak to strangers , but police say, that's the problem with the internet, and a case like this. The 14-year-old girl never felt she was talking to a stranger, but instead someone she developed a relationship with over the past two months.
"It scares me, I gave him a roof over his head, close to work," the suspect's roomate, Densmore Sims said.
Sims says his roomate, Clifton Reed Jr., kept quiet and to himself. But police say the conversations and pictures Reed shared with a young James Island girl, both on myspace.com and on his blackberry, will now keep him away from her and any minor.
"Right now, it just scared me, scared my whole family, they don't even know what to think," Sims said.
Sgt. Trisha Taylor says this case proves how important it is for parents to teach their children the kinds of relationships with adults that are inappropriate.
"Internet relationships occur in a nanosecond. The problem is, you've got junvenile's that aren't prepared to deal with the flattery that goes on. The manipulation going on. The grooming techniques," Charleston City Police Dept., Trisha Taylor said.
Taylor says parents must take the secrecy out of the internet and not allow their kids to be online behind closed door. Reed faces up to ten years in prison if convicted, plus registration as a sex offender for life.
Reed Jr. is considered a flight risk because he was planning on moving back to New York in a few weeks. His bond is set at $100,000.
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