Man gets three years for having sex with girl, 15, he groomed on social media

A man has been jailed for three years for having sex with a 15-year-old girl he met after grooming her using a fake social media profile.

Conor O’Keefe, aged 26, set up a profile as a teenage girl called ‘Julie’ on the website Tagged.com and started chatting with the victim. He later claimed he was Julie’s older brother ‘Adam’ and persuaded the girl to get a taxi to his house in the early hours of the morning, where they had sex.

Judge Sarah Berkeley called it a “sinister” offence which highlights the dangers of social media “and the opportunity it creates”. She noted that there was no threat, force, or coercion used against the girl and that she was a “willing participant”. However, she said O’Keefe put pressure on her by expressing disappointment when she was reluctant to perform sexual acts.