23-year-old man in trouble, minor lied about age
About a week ago, we posted a news story about a 27-year-old man crossing numerous states just to have sex with a 15-year-old girl he'd met on Xbox LIVE. Seems like this sort of thing has been happening a little more often than it ought to, as we hear about another young man awaiting trial for maintaining a sexual relationship with a minor.
However, this tale comes with a twist that muddies the waters and spreads the blame.
Daniel Joseph Czelusniak, 23, was arraigned on Friday, February 6, by a judge on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, and corruption of a minor. He's now making new friends in the Bedford County Jail on $125,000 bail. Quite a list, but how did all this happen?
Apparently, Czelusniak met a girl on World of Warcraft four years ago. The girl claimed to be 14 at the time, and our perpetrator would've been only 19. In March 2008, he traveled from North Royalton, Ohio to Bedford County, Pennsylvania to meet the girl, who would've been 18 by then. Much to Czelusniak's surprise, the girl had lied about her initial age and was actually 14 at the time of their meeting -- meaning she was 10 when they first made contact online. Regardless, the two carried on a physical relationship for two months, meeting several times at a motel and the girl's home.
In September, the girl's mother confronted her daughter after finding a cell phone given to her by Czelusniak. After questioning the girl, the angry mother confronted him and notified police. Czelusniak surrendered to Pennsylvania State Police soon after.
forums
Many MMO's have some type of interactions like this, but this guy went to the extreme. Parents to a point should watch but after I say 13-14 they should let go. This parent was irresponsible yes, but you also have to see that the child was an idiot to go to this point. I am sure WoW has warnings like "Never arrange to meet players in real life"
No, title should be "Parents should teach kids not to lie about their age"
Fair do's the guy shouldn't have banged her after finding out (that part is his fault) but this all started because the 10 year old lied about her age.
The guy was actually quite smart, waiting 4 years to meet her face to face since if all he knew was that she was 14 when he met her then waiting 4 years would have made her 18 and legal.
Instead he was originally chatting up a 10 year old tart who thought it would be funny to blag it on an online MMO
Sure wasn't smart messing with her at all but he probably had genuine feelings for her -- it wasn't like he had a big plan to abuse a minor or anything. I think he should get into trouble about this, for sure, but I hope the judge doesn't like imprison him for decades, 'cuz I personally think that would cause far more damage to his life than the consensual relationship did for the teenage girl.