Facebook stalking is not all bad then…..

Journalists working for the Derbyshire Telegraph managed to ’stalk’ a known sex offender that the police had lost touch with, by researching him on Facebook and using the clues they picked up, to track him to the isolated village of Obermumpf in Switzerland.

Richard Guelbert was jailed for 12 years in 1999 after he was convicted of raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl.

He was released after serving half of his sentence on condition he told authorities of any changes in his living circumstances. But in 2008 he disappeared and the police have been trying to find him ever since.

Unfortunately, the police already knew where he was and were in the process of applying for a warrant to arrest him, when journalists confronted him and made him aware that they were informing the police.

I applaud the wit of the journalists in finding him – but it might have been better if they had canned their story until the police had him safely back behind bars.

1
LeChiffre March 16, 2010 at 17:09

This is just the police’s excuse for letting yet another dangerous criminal remain at large: blame the journos. Extraditing folk from Switzerland doesn’t seem to be an easy thing to do if the Roman Polanski saga is anything to go by; such an effort would be way beyond the ability of Plod. Police “were in the process of applying for a warrant to arrest him”: sounds like they hadn’t even got round to making the application. Excuses, excuses.

2
Gobby March 18, 2010 at 18:05

It appears that rapists, murderers, paedophiles etc. all seem to crave one thing: FAME. If Mr Guelbert didn’t want to be found why publicise himself on social networking sites such as Facebook?
Criminals shouldn’t receive any publicity, they should be punished and ignored!