Katie.Com: One Girl's Loss of Innocence

by KatherineTarbox (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.25

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $7.72

  Aged 13 Katie met 'Mark' in a chat room on America Online. He said he was 23 and a college student; he recognised her 'as someone different from a typical 13-year-old,' she says. In his eyes, she seemed to be sophisticated. Mature. Within a month, their relationship graduated to the phone. She was a top student and nationally ranked swimmer, but where most of the adults in her life told her to work harder, he encouraged her, made her laugh. Eventually, he made her feel loved. After six months, Katie agreed to meet him when she was in Texas with her swimming team for a meet. He got a room at the hotel where Katie, her team-mates and her mum were staying. But when she went to his room to meet him, the man she thought was her cyber-soul mate turned out to be not Mark, 23, but Frank, a 41-year-old paedophile. Police came banging on the door after her roommate, panicked and told Katie's mom. Shunned by her parents, called a slut by her classmates, this was the beginning of a nightmare.