In the light of the recent events involving Shevaun Pennington and Toby Studabaker, David Blunkett would like to make the offence of 'grooming' people on the internet a punishable offence, subject to a maximum of five years imprisonment.
However, much as I admire David Blunkett for overcoming his disadvantages, blindness, control freak, from Yorkshire, stupid, I cannot see him locking a twelve year old girl up for five years. It may be my reading of the case but this girl lied, invented a fictious personae and duped an innocent person into meeting her in France. They both now appear frightened and unwilling to face the consequences. It must work both ways and I do not think the Home Secretary has thought this out properly. Comments, critisisms invited.
Paddy
Ps I was 'groomed' through the Internet by an older woman and I love her dearly for it.