News / Family devastated by US allegations
A SHETLAND family has said their son has been the victim of injustice after being accused by a US court of grooming a 14 year old girl over the internet.
Twenty six year old Keith Bain, of Lerwick, has been charged by prosecutors in Washington County, near Minnesota, of “electronic solicitation of children”.
The court papers went worldwide after being published by the local paper in America, but Keith and his family say they have not been given a chance to put their side of the story.
Speaking on Tuesday at his Lerwick home, Keith said that he met the girl he knew as Kit three years ago on a website they both used called Vampire-Freaks.com.
He stopped using the site shortly afterwards, but as a premium member she was able to get in touch with him a year later and they kept in touch over the next two years.
“Kit contacted me directly through MSN and said she really liked my profile and wanted to become friends. Over the next two years we became more than friends and things became quite intimate between us though we never actually met,” Keith said.
“The website we met on was age restricted to over 16s, and Kit said she was 19. Her profile matched what she had written on her MySpace profile. After about a year I became suspicious that she was younger, but she insisted that she was that old, though I thought she may have really been 17 or 18. I certainly never thought she was as young as she turns out to be.”
Last year the girl said she wanted to come to Scotland to meet him, but he said that he should come to America first and introduce himself to her parents.
Keith completed an HNC in computing in 2002, but last year he started doing casual work to raise enough money to move to the US and meet Kit and her family.
However at the point at which he made it clear he was serious about coming over, she broke off comunication, first claiming to be ill and then having to go to hospital.
“She broke off all contact. She never appeared on line, she didn’t email me, she didn’t text me so I was terrified that she was seriously ill. I phoned her friend and she was very hostile. She said you are too controlling, you’re not her boyfriend any more and if you call again I’ll call the police.
“I did call again because I was so shocked and stunned and said I need to speak to Kit and she said no we’re calling the police.”
Keith did not speak to the girl again, and then in February he received an email from a man claiming to be a police investigator from Minnesota, saying he needed information about him.
“He didn’t tell me what it was about, but he wanted all my details. I wrote back saying I wasn’t giving them any information until he told me what this was about.
“Weeks went by and I got another email saying my name had been brought up in an investigation. I was getting really panicky and said if you can’t tell me what this is about, write to me at my home address, and no more emails came from him.”
Nothing more was heard until this week when the story that Keith was being prosecuted was published on the internet.
The girl, who is now 16, is reported to have told the police that Keith had made her his “slave” over the internet. The court said he had sent her pornographic DVDs and bondage equipment, but he said he only sent her cartoons, fudge, T shirts, a hooded top and a dress with matching shoes for her prom.
Keith’s mother Gilda admits that her son, who lives with his parents, has been stupid for getting so involved with someone he had never met, but she insists he is not a bad person.
She said that she and her husband Gary spoke to the girl themselves and that she seemed a “very nice and lively person”.
What she is horrified about is the way that only one side of the story has been put across and Keith’s version of what actually happened has not been heard.
With the US courts saying they do not intend to pursue the warrant for his arrest, he will not even get his day in court, she said.
“This has devastated our family. It’s left us feeling ill, frightened, upset and scared to leave the house. My son has been turned into a monster, the sort of person every parent is terrified of. He’s being called guilty without being given the chance to prove his innocence.
“Nobody is safe from this type of allegation regardless of gender or age. The internet has become a very dangerous place. You have to know who you are talking to. This could happen to anyone at any time.
“This is trial by media and speaking out is the only way we have clearing Keith’s name. It is an absolute nightmare and shows how careful you have to be when you meet people on the internet.”
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