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Rapists and paedophiles are using Facebook and Twitter to select their victims, according to US prosecutors.

They are using the mass of personal information on social media to build up a detailed picture of their targets.

The predators then befriend the vulnerable, often by pretending to share the same interests, said Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In the most shocking cases, the grooming ends with women and children being abused or lured to their death. Some men even pose as women to get close to their victims – a trick known as ‘catfishing’.

Mrs Saunders said parents needed to keep a close eye on what their children were doing online.

‘People put up lots of details on Facebook and other social media which they can look at and use to target people because they will then know what their interests are,’ she said. ‘It helps with grooming because they have got a hook and a way to get into it.’

Her officials said that in almost every category of sex crime ‘the common thrust is that, anecdotally, offending is being committed more and more over the internet’.

Mrs Saunders delivered her stark warning ahead of the release today of a report documenting the scale of violence against women and girls.

The CPS said the number of violent and sexual attacks, including rape, rose 18 per cent last year. Overall, 107,104 such crimes were prosecuted in 2014, the most ever. The number convicted rose 17 per cent from 2013 to 78,773, also a record.

Child sexual abuse convictions rose by 19 per cent, to 3,975, while the rape case conviction rate fell from 36 per cent to 33 per cent. Officials pointed out that some of the accused were found guilty of other offences.

Mrs Saunders highlighted how men are increasingly using social media to select, groom and physically assault their victims.

A string of other crimes are also being committed using social media, including harassment, threatening messages and revenge porn. Last year, Peter Nunn, 33 and from Bristol, was jailed for bombarding Labour MP Stella Creasy with abusive messages on Twitter, retweeting threats that she would be sexually assaulted.

Mrs Saunders said men were willing to approach any number of women or children online before they found somebody who would bite – or become ‘hooked’.

Children are facing a particular threat from online gaming on machines such as PlayStations, the DPP said. Some consoles allow players to chat with one another, putting them at the mercy of paedophiles.

The CPS is increasingly asking for restraining orders, such as banning offenders from posting messages on a victim’s Facebook page. Prosecutors have also been holding talks with Twitter to try to increase the number of prosecutions.

Katie Russell, of Rape Crisis England and Wales, said: ‘The report highlights that we still have some distance to travel before all survivors of sexual violence and violence against women and girls receive the justice they want and deserve and that there is no room for complacency.’


Credit: Dailymail.co.uk