Facebook paedophile jailed
A FATHER of two who groomed a schoolgirl over the internet before taking her 60 miles back to his Harrogate home for sex is today behind bars.
Ivan Lumley, 38, of Albert Road, befriended the 15-year-old Preston girl on the internet social networking site Facebook, before grooming her through emails and text messages sent from his bedsit.
On the first and only occasion they met face to face, in November 2009, the divorced warehouse operative picked her up from school in Preston after responding to a text she sent asking him todo so.
He drove her back to his home in Harrogate where he indulged in sexual activity with her.
Prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, Kirsten McAteer said: "Her mother received a phone call to say she had gone missing and had not attended any lessons.
Crumble
"North Yorkshire Police raided the house at 5am and the defendant was arrested. The girl was found hiding under the bed naked."
She added that in interviews the girl had told officers she had initiated the contact and that Lumley had rejected her advances at first.
Lumley, a Manchester United fan who listed 'texting' and 'lie ins' as hobbies on his Facebook page, put his fist over his mouth and looked at the floor as his defence lawyer spoke.
Jon Close said Lumley had watched his life crumble around him in the last three years.
He added: "In 2007 he was a family man living in a semi detached house with a wife and two children and a job. By the time these offences occurred he was estranged from his family, living in a bedsit in the only people he could count as friends were digital images on his computer, a very sad scenario.
School
"He sought solace and companionship through the internet, his whole social life was based around the internet."
Judge Anthony Russell said he agreed with legal submissions that it was a "one off" offence and refused to make a sexual offences prevention order which detectives had applied for in a bid to stop Lumley using the internet.
He said: "It was wrong of you to accede to her request for you to take her away from school.
"Although she started the contact the fact is you should not have got involved."
DC Adele Woodburn, who investigated Lumley, said: "Lumley was an adult who should have known better.
"He continued to develop this inappropriate relationship online. Parents need to be aware that an online "friend" that their child thinks is a nice person could have sinister intentions.
"The sad thing is children in sexual exploitation cases never see themselves as the victim, as in this case."
Lumley was jailed for 20 months on Tuesday at Preston Crown Court after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a girl under 16 and taking a child without lawful authority.
Facebook has now removed his profile.
A spokesman for the website said: "The safety of Facebook users is our top priority. We have reporting buttons on every page of our site and continue to invest heavily in creating the most robust reporting system to support our 400 million users."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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