CLEVELAND — A 21-year-old man from the United Kingdom was arrested after allegedly traveling to Westlake, Ohio, to meet a teenage girl he met online.
According to Westlake Police, officers responded to the Barnes and Noble at Crocker Park at 4 p.m. on Oct. 24 for what was described as a possible interference of custody issue between a father, his 16-year-old daughter and a "20-year-old" male. Upon arriving, officers learned that the father had been searching for his daughter who he hadn’t heard from her in a couple of days.
The dad had been under the impression his daughter was with an Avon Lake classmate, but later discovered that she had been with a 21-year-old-man at a hotel in Westlake for two days. The man, who was identified as a United Kingdom national, was present and had traveled to the United States recently and had met the 16-year-old girl online.
Officers confiscated the man’s cell phone for analysis and mediated the situation with the juvenile being returned to her father. Detectives proceeded to perform searches of a hotel room and electronic devices belonging to the 21-year-old man, who was arrested without incident at the Double Tree Hotel on Clemens the following day.
The man was arraigned in Rocky River Municipal Court on a charge of felony Illegal Use of a Minor in Nudity Oriented Material and given a $50,000 cash or surety bond. He was also ordered to surrender his passport to Westlake officers and is currently awaiting additional charges in the Westlake Jail.
