Man, 54, ''Marries'' Teen in RuneScape, Arrested

[anonymous13]

Oh and the general rule, for a man going to have sex with a woman is half your age plus 7. Round down on your age. It's the generally accepted societal rule as well as legal. Try out some ages you'll be surprised how accurate it is.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

all parties involved = stupid. They are all partially to blame.

 

[shin0bi272]

hey if she didnt report it as rape then it was consensual sex and maybe the mom should lighten up and start selling magic the gathering cards instead of working 3 jobs if she wants to stop her 13 year old from hopping on every cock she can get. LOL But seriously we all remember when we were 13 and horny as hell... we didnt care who it was that gave it to us we just wanted sex and wanted it right now... so leave them be and when she gets tired of him she'll dump him and move on to a 20 something guy.

 

[bonezy]

[citation][nom]joytech22[/nom]20 million players creeps you out? you're probably just a hater or haven't played since 2007.[/citation]

Runescape ain't got no 20 million players, fool. World of Warcraft is a phenomenon, and even WoW doesn't have those numbers.

 

[martel80]

[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]ok here is my take on this. LOWER THE AGE OF CONSENT. i knew at 12 weather i wanted sex or not. hell, at 12 i knew more about sex than most people ever know. im not saying its not creepy and that they both really loved each other, but how is this that much different than a 13 year old getting together with someone their age range? i knew back than what i wanted, and i know now.[/citation]As you're reading Tom's Hardware, you're probably not an average or below-average Joe. The law has to be written in a way that it protects like 95% of the affected population, meaning they have to make the age threshold much higher due to all the clueless stupid teens.

 

[WhyFi]

[citation][nom]bv90andy[/nom]please, it's called lurking, trolling is something completely different.[/citation]
Please, get a dictionary. "Trolling," has more than one meaning, and you're evidently only familiar with the most recent of them.

 

[christop]

What a low life..

 

[g00fysmiley]

why do the pervs always drive vans... i want a van but its stories like this preventing my form getting a groovy 70's chevy full size van for fear of the stigma of he must be a pedophile >_<

oh well i like my camaro nonetheless.

 

[dark_lord69]

Can you imagine a 13 year old's bedroom. I don't think can be right in the head and have sex in a place like that. Seriously, did he have to move the stuffed animals off the bed before they had sex? OMG this guy needs to be kept away from kids. Forget about the legality for a minute, at 13 yrs old a girl is not mature. She's barely a teen. This guy is sick. I think it would be different if she was 17 and about to turn 18, at least then she would might be physically mature, but she is still a child.

 

[mustbhacks]

[citation][nom]purplellama[/nom]\Why would a 13 year old girl want to sleep with a 54 year old man? Kids are really screwed up nowadays.[/citation]

Nowadays as apposed to in the olden days of as soon as they bled we'd marry them off as form of currency.

 

[Parrdacc]

"His capture was the result of an extensive collaboration between the Wayne County Sheriff Office's Internet Crimes Unit, Michigan State Police, Wayne County prosecutors, U.S. Secret Service agents, federal prosecutors and police in Massachusetts and New York."

Wow! All this for a sicko pedo. Good job and all. Just wondering how come it was so easy to get all these departments to collaborate to catch one guy, but for some reason it seems near imposiable to due the same when it comes to murderers, terrorists and the like? If they can do all this for one sicko, imagine what else they could pull off.

 

[martel80]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]This guy is sick. I think it would be different if she was 17 and about to turn 18, at least then she would might be physically mature, but she is still a child.[/citation]
??? In our country one may have sex legally from 15, driver's license and alcohol from 18. Are we all sick LOL?

I could say you're sick by allowing drivers under 18 who may KILL while driving.

Different people different opinions.

 

[COLGeek]

There is NO justification for what this guy did. When he goes to prison, he will become a "favorite" for the other inmates.

That being said, some folks out there (including in our forum membership) need some serious help. Just because the 'Net affords a certain amount of anonymity doesn't mean one must stretch the bounds of the his/her individual stupidity by airing his/her nonsense to the entire world.

 

[nottheking]

This story is indeed rather sad... And on multiple fronts. For one, yes, this man was sick, mentally. At the very least he was seriously troubled to think that such a thing would be justifiable, and at worst, he's a ruthless predator. Either way he should not be living out there.

However, it's also sad on the other end: the sexual relations were nominally consensual, and it was merely the age of consent law that made it a sexual crime. This is troubling for many reasons: mostly, it boils down to being a failure of parenting, and a failure of society. Both are major tragedies.

On the former, this poor girl, as I'd (safely) assume, sounds to be living with just her mother to be a parent, without any other major adult figure. And of course, the situation of a single-parent household bites multiple times: not just is there only one parental figure in the kid's life, there's also the fact that this means the only parent is ALSO likely the only person putting food on the table, so that means she's GONE most of the time. She's also likely going to be too busy to have any decent friends, or any other adults that could potentially be a parental surrogate for the child. Without any of this, it's not an example of BAD parenting, it's an example of NO parenting.

On the latter, we live in a day and age that endlessly glorifies sex. This is regardless of gender: both men and women (and by extension boys and girls) are pressured here, just in different ways. But in both cases, they're pressured toward having sex, even when it's not in their best interests. I can no doubt see that for this 13-year-old girl, exposure to all this on TV, on the Internet, in print, and even in word-of-mouth will have painted quite a bad picture for her. At only 13 years old and without any strong parenting, it'd be only natural for her to actually believe what she's told. Thus she actually BELIEVED it was the right idea: and this is downright terrible.

[citation][nom]thegreathuntingdolphin[/nom]Who is this guy? Secret Service? Really?[/citation]
If memory serves correctly, over the past decade or so, (since they were moved from the Department of Treasury to Department of Homeland Security) the Secret Service has greatly expanded their roles, with a high emphasis on combating child exploitation crimes. (e.g, this one)

[citation][nom]bonezy[/nom]Runescape ain't got no 20 million players, fool. World of Warcraft is a phenomenon, and even WoW doesn't have those numbers.[/citation]
You would be sadly mistaken: Runescape DOES dwarf WoW in players; this is the advantage of offering itself as "free-to-play," rather than charging 15 bucks a month. According to Wikipedia, they currently have 156 million registered accounts... Of which 10 million are active in any given month. (the 20+ million figure, IIRC, is calculated through judging what IP addresses consistently keep coming over a long period of time) Paid-subscription-wise, they're somewhere between 1-2 million.

Also, WoW WAS a phenomenon: as I recall, it already peaked in userbase at around 12 million about 2 years ago, and is slowly declining. The buzz over Cataclysm was only worth about 500k subscribers, approximately the number they'd lost since they peaked. There's a REASON why there's been a lot of rumors circulating about a WoW 2: an MMO can't really quite last forever. Cataclysm was merely a case of staving off the inevitable. Given that they've been maintaining a consistent 2 years between each expansion, I have doubts WoW will see a fourth one, and it certainly won't see a fifth: going on the curves for all previous "phenomenons," after peak an MMO will decline at between 33-66% of the rate it grew, so WoW, (which hit 12 million in 4 years) should see a bleed-off of 1-2 million a year from now on.

That means about 9 million will be there if there's another expansion, (in late 2012) and ~6 million by 2014. This "rise-and-fall" has applied to virtually every major MMO, me it Everquest, Aion, Lineage, Final Fantasy XI, or even Ultima Online. The only "exceptions" are those that haven't peaked yet due to painfuly slow growth, like EVE, which is still climbing slowly after taking ~8 years to reach it's current 320k, and Runescape, which is at maybe 1.5 million paying members after a whopping 8.5 years.

 

[gm0n3y]

While the guy certainly deserves to go to jail for having sex with a minor, the real issue here is poor parenting.

 

[Amen2That]

This guys a sicko perv and there's just no justifying what he did. Even if in his demented perception of reality, he "rationalized" that he did it because he loved her, then he should have loved her enough to not touch her until she was 18. At her age, she doesn't have enough experience or sense to make that kind of decision rationally and he knows that. He knew (or found out) how old she was. He found out she was alone most of the time. He made a conscious decision to not leave it alone: He picked his victim (the clueless teen might not even know that she is). Lets face it, the sicko was out for sex.

At 13, the body physically matures faster than the pewee teen brain (The prefrontal cortex part of the brain has not fully developed so decision making skills are compromised). Thus, teens have more of a tendency to do things compulsively without considering the consequences. Add to that a lack of experience and knowledge and you've got trouble. It doesn't matter if you think your "mature" at that age, what are you gonna do when you/she gets pregnant? What the hell kind of job can you get at 13 to support your family? And I suppose that you'll have to drop out of school now? You gonna live with mommy & daddy? Did you think about that? Did you even think?

 

[scuba dave]

[citation][nom]COLGeek[/nom]There is NO justification for what this guy did. When he goes to prison, he will become a "favorite" for the other inmates.[/citation]

And there is NO justification for what they *might* do to him in prison. 2 wrongs don't.. Well, you know the rest, I assume. And the fact that you boldly seem to take pleasure in that knowledge.. Is far more sickening than anything that man himself did. While he may have taken advantage of her.. she still chose to do it. And if she did it 3 times, prolly enjoyed it too(as gross as that is to think about.. Ugh..).

You on the other hand, want a man to be raped. You are vile. Grow the heck up before coming out here, using the same anonymity that you bash against, touting your own version of reality as if you were something special and unique.. Sadly, your not. I can't tell you how many people tout that same vile sentence and stance that you do.. Like ya'll are all straight out a cookie cutter.. Cookie-Cutter People.. How sad..
[citation][nom]COLGeek[/nom]That being said, some folks out there (including in our forum membership) need some serious help. Just because the 'Net affords a certain amount of anonymity doesn't mean one must stretch the bounds of the his/her individual stupidity by airing his/her nonsense to the entire world.[/citation]

First damn Amendment says I can say whatever the heck I want, in a public venue, as long as it's not slander, libel, or attempting to get someone to commit a crime. How I love that people like you didn't write the constitution. So very glad.

On topic however, I think this is a very simple case, that has only two real venues of guilt. No/Bad Parenting with a very apparent lack of communication between them, and a guy that most *obviously* knew he must have been breaking the law. The mother, while it was not, in my opinion *her* fault that this occured.. I feel she should have to do something like parenting classes to help her re-establish, and hopefully reverse some of the damage that her daughter has been going through. The daughter.. Can't really do much here, except for counceling to help her realize what happened, and to help alleviate any further damage.. And hopefully reconnect her with her family a little more, so that this kinda stuff is less likely to happen again. And with him.. He should go through some testing, I believe, to see what was going through his head, see if medication might be needed, counceling, rehab, whatever else, on top of around 4-6 in jail w/ 6-4 in probation with mandatory sex offender meetings, parole officer, no alcohol.. etc etc. Oh, and all the counceling the mother and daughter take should be on his dime, until she is 18, or graduates high school.. whichever occurs last.

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]Can you imagine a 13 year old's bedroom. I don't think can be right in the head and have sex in a place like that.[/citation]
I would rather not imagine what her room looks like.. Nor would I want to take in anything but what would be absolutely required in this case. Such things would only serve to enrage me, and letting my emotions dictate what I feel is an appropriate punishment for a man, woman, or child... Would serve no one. (Seeing her dolls and stuff like that.. that's all shady court room antics.. The doll doesn't have anything to do with a case, but they show it regardless to invoke that anger.. The desire to punish a person for hurting a little girl.. all just for a bigger verdict. That, too, disgusts me.) That kind of thinking just leads to insanely large sums of money awarded at trials and what-not. Watch her mom and/or her sue him for millions.. and win.. And I'm sorry.. but logically speaking.. What happened wasn't worth millions.. But you all know very well, that some lawyer out there would be willing to sue him, or anyone they could try to pin this case on(or any case similar to it). So yeah, no thanks. I'll just stick with the facts presented. ;P

 

[COLGeek]

[citation][nom]scuba dave[/nom]And there is NO justification for what they *might* do to him in prison. 2 wrongs don't.. Well, you know the rest, I assume. And the fact that you boldly seem to take pleasure in that knowledge.. Is far more sickening than anything that man himself did. While he may have taken advantage of her.. she still chose to do it. And if she did it 3 times, prolly enjoyed it too(as gross as that is to think about.. Ugh..). You on the other hand, want a man to be raped. You are vile. Grow the heck up before coming out here, using the same anonymity that you bash against, touting your own version of reality as if you were something special and unique.. Sadly, your not. I can't tell you how many people tout that same vile sentence and stance that you do.. Like ya'll are all straight out a cookie cutter.. Cookie-Cutter People.. How sad..First damn Amendment says I can say whatever the heck I want, in a public venue, as long as it's not slander, libel, or attempting to get someone to commit a crime. How I love that people like you didn't write the constitution. So very glad.On topic however, I think this is a very simple case, that has only two real venues of guilt. No/Bad Parenting with a very apparent lack of communication between them, and a guy that most *obviously* knew he must have been breaking the law. The mother, while it was not, in my opinion *her* fault that this occured.. I feel she should have to do something like parenting classes to help her re-establish, and hopefully reverse some of the damage that her daughter has been going through. The daughter.. Can't really do much here, except for counceling to help her realize what happened, and to help alleviate any further damage.. And hopefully reconnect her with her family a little more, so that this kinda stuff is less likely to happen again. And with him.. He should go through some testing, I believe, to see what was going through his head, see if medication might be needed, counceling, rehab, whatever else, on top of around 4-6 in jail w/ 6-4 in probation with mandatory sex offender meetings, parole officer, no alcohol.. etc etc. Oh, and all the counceling the mother and daughter take should be on his dime, until she is 18, or graduates high school.. whichever occurs last.I would rather not imagine what her room looks like.. Nor would I want to take in anything but what would be absolutely required in this case. Such things would only serve to enrage me, and letting my emotions dictate what I feel is an appropriate punishment for a man, woman, or child... Would serve no one. (Seeing her dolls and stuff like that.. that's all shady court room antics.. The doll doesn't have anything to do with a case, but they show it regardless to invoke that anger.. The desire to punish a person for hurting a little girl.. all just for a bigger verdict. That, too, disgusts me.) That kind of thinking just leads to insanely large sums of money awarded at trials and what-not. Watch her mom and/or her sue him for millions.. and win.. And I'm sorry.. but logically speaking.. What happened wasn't worth millions.. But you all know very well, that some lawyer out there would be willing to sue him, or anyone they could try to pin this case on(or any case similar to it). So yeah, no thanks. I'll just stick with the facts presented. ;P[/citation]
I applaud your first amendment rights, however you are misapplying them. Not really the issue here if you read what some say. Just wrong.

Regarding "prison justice", I wish no harm to anyone (nor take any joy from it), but even prisoners take a VERY hard stance on rapists, especially child rapists. I really don't need to say more.

I, too, hope the family gets help for all of the members. When these sorts of things happen, all are affected in a family.

 

[scuba dave]

I would like to know how it is possible to misapply the freedom of speech, lol. Freedom is freedom.. can't really go wrong with anything there, as long as what I say doesn't violate another's rights.. Rights being the key word, and not their feelings, beliefs, etc.

I wouldn't use the term prison justice.. bleh. That also gives it a good light. Almost nothing criminals do, while in prison, that breaks even more laws is good. Or just. But yes, I was raised knowing that.. I wonder where I heard that from.. Anyway, yes, I was raised knowing that, and I'm fairly certain my son has heard the same thing by now.. However, this isn't really rape.. Rape is without permission, and usually heavily forced.. Now, some would say that children(13yr olds included) can't and shouldn't be allowed to "consent" however, the fact of the matter is they can.. Just not in a legally binding way. Now in my opinion, I think the two need to stay separated, so that the more harsh crime can be punished in a different way, than to force harder punishments on a lighter crime(with regards to forced vs underaged consent only)

And most definitely I must agree with you there. That family will need help.. In ways I and possibly you can not even forsee. And as he committed the crime... I don't think justice will be served unless he pays for every last dime of the counceling(up to the limit I described) and a reasonable sum for pain and suffering.. None of this mil-sized stuff. We are talking like.. 50kish.. That's more that a years pay for alot of people.. but it sounds appropriate to me..

 

[COLGeek]

I am pretty sure our forefathers, the authors of the Constitution, did not envision Americans blindly applying the First Amendment to allow them to say anything they wanted, especially in terms of condoning illegal or immoral behavior.

I am also, pretty darn sure, that our forefathers couldn't have even imagined something like the 'Net and I am sure they would be appalled to learn that the First Amendment was being used to allow anyone to say anything, not matter how inane, insensitive, disturbed, etc.

The 'Net has also created a certain anonymity that seems to empower some people to say things from behind their keyboard that they would never utter in public or to someone's face. The hostility and incivility afforded by this anonymity has contributed to a lack of compassion and understanding by many.

Still, we agree that freedom is paramount to the American (many would argue the same for their country as well) way of life. Unfortunately, there are those that will always take their freedoms for granted and use their rights for harm rather than good.

'Nuf said. Off the ol' soapbox. HOOAH!!!