Girl lured to Bridge by Internet 'groomer'

A MAN aged 33 was convicted yesterday of using the Internet to lure a teenage girl to the Bridge where he asked her to have sex with him. The 15-year-old refused but Nicholas Finigan, who had contacted the girl through a chat room, was convicted in the Magistrate's Court of indecent assault. The Home Affairs Committee is now considering bringing in a law against 'grooming' of children by paedophiles. The law, expected to come into force in the UK this autumn, would make it illegal for an adult to arrange to meet a child under 16 years old with intent to abuse them. The maximum penalty would be five years in prison. Grooming made national headlines last week when a 12-year-old girl ran away to the Continent with a 31-year-old former US Marine she had met through the Internet. However, computer crime expert Sergeant Garry Fusellier, who found 70,000 indecent images on Finigan's computer, doubted Guernsey could police a grooming law. 'We don't have the resources to be pro-active in online monitoring whereas some of the bigger UK forces and the FBI have. It would be very difficult for us to do that.' Home Affairs vice-president Peter Bougourd said the committee wanted to avoid a knee-jerk reaction to recent sex cases. 'We are aware of the concerns and these are being explored following the first Operation Ore conviction,' he said. 'It's a much bigger problem than was realised. First of all we need to explore the full extent of it. When something is done, we have to make sure that it's done properly.' The girl, who is too young to be identified, and Finigan sent each other text messages before meeting in January. She also sent him pictures of herself and her friends in school uniform. She told police she had met him out of curiosity and he had touched her knee in his car and asked for sex. In court, Finigan, of 12, St John Street, St Peter Port, admitted indecent assault after initially denying the offence. The self-employed electrician, who works from home, also admitted distributing indecent photographs of children.