News
Suspected Facebook ‘friend’ turned rapist gathered trove of child porn
View(s):By Damith Wickremasekara
Two youth who allegedly raped a girl and her sister and extorted money from them after building up a friendship via Facebook are being held in remand custody until March 9. The suspects were arrested by the Cyber Crime Division of the Criminal Investigations Department this week after the victim’s father made complaint.
Anyone using social media such as Facebook also should be careful about sharing personal information, including pictures
A senior officer investigator said the chief suspect and his friend, both aged 24, are from Meethotumulla, Kolonnawa. Initial investigations had revealed that the girl signed up to Facebook after receiving a smartphone on her birthday from her father. She had opened two Facebook accounts and linked up with several friends.
One “friend’’ with a bogus name won the trust of the girl and elder sister. The girls had even shared her personal problems with the stranger. She had told him her former boyfriend was in possession of her pictures and was trying to get them back. The dubious Facebook “friend’’ had offered to help, but then asked her to share the same pictures with him. She did share the pictures along with nude images of herself. Then the stranger had claimed that his computer has been hacked and the pictures were now in possession of a third party who was demanding money not to publish the pictures on the Internet.
The youth had initially demanded Rs 30,000 and the girl had withdrawn the money from her own account to pay up. But the stranger wanted more, claiming the pictures have been obtained by a ‘police officer’ and she will have to face an inquiry.
Desperate, the girl stole household items for sale to raise money. She had also stolen money from her father and eventually sold some of the gold items to pay up, the investigator said. The youth had thereafter obtained details of the other family members of the girl and demanded nude pictures of the sisters and the girl had sent pictures of the sisters as well.
In January this year, the youth had demanded that the elder girl should meet him in person. They had met in a hotel on the outskirts of Colombo city and had demanded that she bring along with her one of the other sisters.On the following day the youth had arrived with one of his friends and forced the girl to withdraw money through her ATM card and pay for two hotel rooms where the sister had been abused by the youth’s friend.
The father had felt suspicious about the girls’ expenses and their regular purchase of Internet data cards. On questioning the two daughters had claimed they were being harassed by the two youth.The investigator said this was a rare case in Sri Lanka and advised parents to be watchful of online activity. “Parents should particularly be on the watch if children lock up their rooms and use the Internet or use their phones,’’ the investigator said.
Anyone using social media such as Facebook also should be careful about sharing personal information, including pictures, he said.
Investigations revealed that the youth who initiated the relationship had some 36,000 photographs of child pornography. He was married with one child and has been investigated earlier for abusing a 12-year-old child.
The two youth are to be charged with rape, extortion, grave crime and forcibly taking nude pictures of underaged children.