Tuesday, March 16, 1999
Briton guilty in chat-room romance
Man flew to Cincinnati to meet girl, 15
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ian Waddup
|
A British man was convicted Monday on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a 15-year-old Hamilton girl he met via the Internet.
Ian Waddup, 37, pleaded no contest to the charge in Hamilton County Juvenile Court and was declared guilty by Judge Sylvia Hendon. He faces up to six months in jail when he returns for sentencing April 6.
Mr. Waddup is accused of traveling to Greater Cincinnati to meet the girl he first contacted in an Internet chat room.
Prosecutors say the two exchanged e-mail for months before meeting in person at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
In court Monday, Judge Hendon asked Mr. Waddup whether he knew the girl — then 14 — was so young when he arranged to meet her.
He told her that he did and said he made the trip to the United States because he wanted to see her.
Mr. Waddup previously has said he flew to Cincinnati in hopes she would return with him to England when she turned 16, the legal marrying age there.
In an interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer last month, Mr. Waddup said he was drawn to the girl because “she was a very happy person.”
“I didn't go there looking for a 14-year-old — it was her personality that I liked,” he said.
Police, however, have described him as a sexual predator with prior convictions in England for crimes against children.
Mr. Waddup was arrested by Springdale police Feb. 9 after an anonymous caller reported seeing him and the girl kiss outside a Springdale store.
Prosecutors said the girl met Mr. Waddup at the airport that day in a cab. They said the pair spent most of the day at the Tri-County Mall before Mr. Waddup's arrest.
Mr. Waddup also faces fed eral charges for allegedly making false statements to immigration officials, who say Mr. Waddup lied when he filled out his visa waiver form.
They say Mr. Waddup answered “no” when asked whether he had ever been convicted of a crime of “moral turpitude,” when he actually had been convicted in 1994 for indecent assault on two girls in England.
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