Three Sentenced for Child Molestation Plot Hatched in Chat Room   - 3,054 Views, 1 Comment

Some complained, some praised, when Yahoo closed their chat rooms to those under 18, in an effort to help protect children from predators. Yahoo and other sites also routinely close down chat rooms which have ‘themes’ which are related to illegal activities, such as child molestation.

Now three men - David Beavan, Alan Hedgcock, and Robert Mayers - have been sentenced in the UK for plotting in a chat room to molest sisters - aged 13 and 14 - on the children’s way home from school.

According to authorities, it all took place in an “incest-themed chat room.”

Said a detective on the case “”These three men took a step beyond fantasy and had actually identified the children they would target, the location where they would approach them and what exactly they planned to do to them….It is appalling to consider the potential repercussions if this hadn’t come to police notice.”

The judge, in handing down sentences ranging from 8 to 11 years, evidenced his own disgust at the men, exclaiming “You were drooling over the prospect to take these children into the woods and rape them. … These logs were further spiced…by the swapping of pornographic images of young children.”

Warned the detective, “This case should act as a really stark warning that the Internet is not a hiding place to plan and participate in criminal acts.”