CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A 25-year-old Georgia man will spend five years in prison for having sex with a 15-year-old who he met on the Internet.
James Carter, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to statutory rape on Friday.
Police say the incident happened in 2008.
Carter met the 15-year-old on TeenSpot.com -- a social networking site. The two talked on the phone and agreed to meet.
Police say Carter drove up from Atlanta to Cabarrus County to pick up the teen and took her to a Charlotte motel. Police say the teen gave consent, even though legally she didn't have the right to.
"If they consent to leave with somebody that's where the issues really start happening where we have to get involved -- the child is raped, the child is harmed, the child unfortunately is sometimes killed," said Dave Conn, an investigator with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Special Victims Unit.
Carter was arrested after the teen's mother notified police.
Conn says that sometimes the consent issue can make these cases difficult to prosecute. He says for parents the best defense is to be nosy and make sure your computer skills are equal to your kids so you can check on them.
"You hope and you think that your children are going to be doing what's right on the computer but let's face it, children are children," Conn said. "They are going to make mistakes."
