Boy cleared of net 'rape'

The internet brought the teenagers together

A teenage boy who met a girl through the internet has been cleared of attempting to rape her.

The 15-year-old girl from the Flint area had claimed she woke up one night to find the defendant - who was the same age - on top of her.

Mold Crown Court had heard claims that the alleged rape occured while the boy from Merseyside was staying at the girl's home.

The boy denied a charge of attempted rape.

Prosecuting, Meirion Lewis-Jones had said that after making contact via the internet the couple decided to meet up.

The girl had visited the boy's home and he had visited her in north Wales. The charge arose from an incident when the boy had been staying at the girl's home and they had been out bowling.

'Woke up'

That night, despite the girls protests, the boy repeatedly went in the girl's bedroom after she had gone to bed, it was alleged.

Mr Lewis-Jones told the jury that she woke up to find the defendant trying to rape her.

She told him to stop and to move but it was claimed that he refused.

Cross-examined via a television link, the girl admitted that she had previously been made pregnant by another boy but had a termination.

Sexual contact

She denied that she had met three boys via the internet and that one of them had got her pregnant.

Giving evidence in court, the boy he told the jury that the girl had initiated sexual contact and that he did not like it at first.

He had never had sex with a girl and until that day there had been no physical contact between them apart from hugs and kisses.

She had told him that she did have sex with a previous boyfriend, had got pregnant, and he believed that she was still pregnant at the time.

Touching

On the day of the alleged incident, he said that when he was in her room earlier, the girl opened his trousers and started touching him.

She opened her own trousers and some mutual petting took place and she appeared to be enjoying it, he said.

The boy admitted a similar thing happened a second time, but he denied that he went into her bedroom later in the night while she was asleep and tried to have sex.

The boy showed no emotion as the jury returned its unanimous verdict, and he left court with his mother.