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By
Elizabeth Dinan
December 22, 2007 6:00 AM
PORTSMOUTH — A former Penhallow Street
resident communicated with an underage girl through the MySpace
social networking Web site as a means to rape her on three different
occasions, police allege.
Based on those allegations, police
arrested David C. Smith, 30, of 30 Winslow Way, Epping, on three
felony counts of sexual assault/statutory rape and a felony charge
of certain uses of computer services prohibited.
Anyone with further information is urged
to call detective Kristyn Bernier at 436-2511, or the anonymous
Crime Stoppers line at 431-1199 or online at
www.seacoastcrimestoppers.org.
Police Capt. Janet Champlin said that
during January and February of this year, Smith chatted with the
girl through MySpace and raped her within Portsmouth city limits,
reflecting two of the charges. Epping police are charging him with
twice raping the girl in that town, she said.
"We're alleging he was preying on someone
who was young and naive," said Champlin. "This illustrates the
importance of our pro-active cases when police detectives pose as
minors."
The police detective said the arrest comes
nine months after the alleged crimes occurred because disclosure was
not immediate and a forensic investigation of Smith's computer was
time-consuming.
Following his Friday arrest, Smith was
released on $15,000 personal recognizance bail for the Portsmouth
charges and the same bail for the Epping allegations.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 28 in
the district court.
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