MySpace Pedophile Identified Via Pearl Script

Andrew Lubrano, was arrested at his Long Island home by NY Suffolk County Police after he had solicited sex with an underage boy on MySpace.com. The 39 year-old and father of five, is a registered sex offender with the National Sex Offender Registry.

Lubrano was sentenced in 1987, 1988 and 1995 for sexual abuse. A 7-year-old boy fell victim to him in 1987, while in 1995 he sexually abused two boys age 11 and 9 he was babysitting. He got probation in '87 and '88, but in '95 he was convicted to 3 to 9 years in prison. This didn't put an end to his sexual practices. Among Lubrano 93 MySpace friends, 6 were teenagers. He was calling one 14 year old boy his sex toy.

Wired Editor Kevin Poulsen identified Lubrano via a Perl Script he put together taking into account the National Sex Offender Registry. "I confirmed 744 sex offenders with MySpace profiles, after an examination of about a third of the data. Of those, 497 are registered for sex crimes against children. In this group, six of them are listed as repeat offenders, though Lubrano's previous convictions were not in the registry, so this number may be low. At least 243 of the 497 have convictions in 2000 or later," tells Poulsen.

But Poulsen's script is not without its shortcomings. It can only identify criminals who are registered under their real names. Fortunately, Lubrano was identified and apprehended before he could meet with is 14 year old victim Jacob. Poulsen reported that Jacob regarded Lubrano as a friend and that he changed his mind when he found out that the man was a pedophile.