Posed as millionaire, man gets 6 1/2 years for luring - A fraud artist who tricked a 12-year-old Cambridge girl into a sexual encounter with a promise of $200 million was sentenced yesterday to 6 1/2 years in jail.
Thomas Woodward, 32, met the girl in an internet chat room and exchanged hundreds of cellphone text messages with her before arranging a meeting.
The girl was at first reluctant, but agreed to sex for money after Woodward, posing as a Russian millionaire, gradually increased his offer.
Woodward took the girl to an area in Cambridge near railway tracks, where they had intercourse and she performed oral sex on him. As part of the con, Woodward let her hear a telephone message suggesting he had opened a bank account into which he would transfer her payment. The money never showed up.
"Her parents were contemplating bankruptcy and she wanted to help them out," Justice Sharon Nicklas said.
I am still amazed about what kids will do. Now if only more parents would watch what their children do on the computer…

Man gets 6-15 years for having sex with 14-year-old - A Maryland man who traveled to Jackson to have sex with a 14-year-old girl said Thursday he thought she was legal. ``I thought she was 18 or 19,'' said 30-year-old Kenneth Roberto.
Circuit Judge John McBain sentenced Roberto to six to 15 years in prison for third-degree criminal sexual conduct, once known as statutory rape. He pleaded guilty in October.
Roberto said he met the girl on a chat room and talked to her over the phone before coming to Michigan in late summer.
Although he told McBain he discovered the girl's age shortly after having intercourse with her, Assistant Prosecutor Nick Mehalco said there were three or four encounters.
``I have turned toward the Lord,'' Roberto said, guaranteeing McBain he would never pursue underage girls again.
Heaven Help Us Again…