Massachusetts Man Gets 11 Felony Charges for Consummating RuneScape Marriage

It is bad enough that 54-year old John W. Phillips from Fitchburg, Massachusetts married a 13-year-old Detroit girl in the virtual world of RuneScape. That is creepy enough and should be the end of the story. But sick people like Phillips never know when to quit. The man decided it was a good idea to meet up with the girl who was his "wife" in the virtual world and have "real-world" sex with her on three different occasions. The problem for Phillips is that the real-world does not approve of his faux-marriage or his sick obsession with under-age girls.

The result of Phillips' disgusting behavior is simple enough: he now faces 11 felonies including sexual assault, using a computer to communicate with another person to commit a crime, accosting a child for immoral purposes and child sexually abusive activity. The maximum sentences for the charges range from four to 20 years in prison.

"They got married in the game," Wayne County sheriff's corporal Ray Johnson said. "Maybe he thought that was legitimate in real life. It's not."

Michigan State Police Lt. Tom Kish noted that sexual predators are moving from the chat rooms where kids used to hang out to online video games that allow players to interact through text messages and other means of communications.

"It is easy for children to be contacted in nontraditional ways," Kish said. "Internet use has to be monitored."

The moral of the story is important for parents of teens: pay attention to what they are doing and who they are talking to online. You can read the whole account in Detroit News.