News

October 31, 2008

AG: Man used Internet to perform lewd acts

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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PLAINS TWP. – A Wyoming man was charged by the state Office of Attorney General on Thursday on allegations he used the Internet and a Web cam to perform lewd acts in front of “a 14-year-old girl” who actually was a police decoy, authorities said.

John H. Hettes, 53, of Bodle Road, was among six people charged this week with using the Internet to sexually proposition children, Attorney General Tom Corbett said during a news conference.

The “children,” Corbett said, were undercover agents from his office’s Child Predator Unit, which has charged 175 men in similar cases since January 2005.

Hettes declined comment when he was escorted to District Judge Joseph Carmody’s office in West Pittston, where he was arraigned on charges of unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility. He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $50,000 straight bail.

According to the criminal complaint:

Hettes was in a Yahoo! chat room and believed he was conversing with a 14-year-old girl on Sept. 20. Hettes asked the girl, “hi there you into k9 sex?” During the chat session, the criminal complaint says, Hettes used a Web cam to expose himself and perform a lewd act.

Hettes contacted the girl again on Oct. 21 via chat room exposing himself and performing a lewd act, the criminal complaint says.

State agents identified Hettes after securing search warrants for Yahoo! and Comcast Cable Communications that identified his screen name and Internet provider address.

Corbett said that as the weather turns cold and the days grow shorter, more young people turn to their computers and online communities for entertainment or to stay in touch with friends.

“Predators know that online activity increases at this time of year, and they also know that more young people may be home unsupervised, either before or after school,” Corbett said. “Time and distance mean nothing to Internet predators because computer technology allows them to reach across the street, or across the country to groom young victims for sexual meetings or to flood their computers with explicit Web cam videos, sexually graphic pictures or illegal child pornography.”

Corbett said Internet predators either develop friendships with children, which he called “grooming,” before requesting to meet them, or immediately discuss sexual encounters after meeting children in chat rooms.

He said parents are the first line of defense against Internet predators.

A preliminary hearing for Hettes is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 6 in Central Court.

Edward Lewis, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7196.

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