Girl's internet sex predator jailed

Ivan Lumley, 38, of Albert Road, in Harrogate, 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 dingy bedsit.

The warehouseman met her after school in Preston after she sent him a text asking him to pick her up and took her back to his home in Harrogate.

North Yorkshire Police raided his home at 5am the next morning after the girl's worried mother reported her missing and she was found hiding under the bed naked.

Lumley was jailed for 20 months yesterday 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.

His conviction has added to the pressure on Facebook to install new security measures, after sex offender Peter Chapman was jailed for life for last week for the kidnap, rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall, whom he also befriended on the social networking site.

Speaking after yesterday's court hearing, DC Adele Woodburn from a police child protection unit, said: "This was a shocking offence against a vulnerable victim and I am pleased he will spend time in prison.

"Lumley acted as a confidante and supportive friend to the victim and gained her trust. He travelled to Preston from Harrogate and collected her from school and drove her to his home in Harrogate, fully aware of her age.

"Adults who exploit young people in this way are adept at the grooming process and target those who are vulnerable. They may offer them the affection they crave, material gifts, may introduce them to drugs or alcohol and inspire loyalty.

"The victim in this case has fully cooperated with police and has shown immense bravery in coming forward. I would encourage anyone who has been abused in this way to contact police and reassure them that their case will be fully investigated."

Home Secretary Alan Johnson and junior Home Office minister Alan Campbell will hold talks with Facebook later this week about the social networking site's refusal to install a "panic button" that reports suspected paedophiles to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (known as the CEOP button). Facebook has resisted joining the system because it says it is inferior to its own reporting systems.

Mr Campbell told MPs: "I expect those responsible for provision of services online to take responsibility for providing safety mechanisms and information to their users and, in the case of services where there can be communication between people who are not previously know to each other and where identities can be invented, to provide the click CEOP button to allow users who feel threatened or vulnerable to make a report.

"The CEOP button should be used by all of those sites and many sites have either agreed to take them or agreed to take them at some point in the future, such as Bebo.

"We see absolutely no reason why sites should not do so."

Jim Gamble, chief executive of CEOP, said: "Social networking providers need to step up to the plate. We have been asking social networking providers for too long to do the right thing."

Facebook have removed Lumley's profile after being contacted by the Yorkshire Post.

A spokesman 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."