Man gets prison for Facebook stalking

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A 22-year-old Walker man was sentenced on Thursday to up to seven years in prison for stalking a teenager on Facebook and possesion of child porn.

Joseph Parent had pleaded guilty to stalking a minor, possesion of child pornography -- about 27,000 images -- and two counts of using a computer to commit a crime.

The trouble started when Parent, posing as a girl named "Rose," sent a "friend" request to a teenage girl from Kenowa Hills High School. The girl pushed the "confirm" button, even though she had never heard of Rose.

As it turned out, "Rose" was really Joseph Parent, a Grand Rapids Community College computer student who had also gone to Kenowa Hills High School.

Once the victim accepted the "friend" request, Parent went to work.

"He used female names to try to make them feel more comfortable," Kent County Assistant Prosecutor James Benison said.

He used details on her Facebook account to hack into her Yahoo email, and to stalk her, police said.

In one online comment, Parent wrote to her: "I stare at your a-- all day. What do you think about that?'" Benison said.

"She was afraid he'd be outside watching her," Benison said of the victim. "She had no idea who this was."
 
The investigation into Parent started in May, when the Kent County Sheriff's Department tracked his IP address. That led to his family's home in Walker and to his computer, where detectives discovered 27,000 child porn images -- still pictures and videos -- some involving infants.

Before he was sentenced, Parent, who had no prior criminal record, addressed the stalking charge.

"I never meant to cause harm to (the victim) and her family. I sincerely want to apologize for that."

He did not address the child porn conviction, but Kent County Circuit Judge Dennis Lieber did.

"Your perversion fosters conduct that destroys the innocence and threatens the health of children," he said.

The judge sentenced Parent to 23 to 84 months for using a computer to commit a crime and a total of $5,000 in fines for the other crimes.

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