A 13-year old boy in the USA made online friends with an older man via an online gaming website.

In July 2004 after playing and chatting for several months, the boy and his new friend arranged to meet.

The boy thought he and his new friend were to spend 4 days playing role-play games.

The boy’s mother put him on the plane to fly to meet this friend in another state. She didn’t know that the new friend was a convicted sex-offender.

The first day of the visit the boy was invited to the Zoo and experienced an unusual amount of 'hugging' and 'back rubbing'.

And then, luckily, the visit ended: some relatives to the sex-offender had alarmed the authorities and the boy was rescued by the police.