Woman uses Facebook to trace man who traumatised her daughter

A man, who sexually harassed a 12-year-old girl in Durham, was identified through social networking platform Facebook and was successfully prosecuted, media reported.

The man, who exposed himself to the 12-year-old victim at a bus stop, was wearing a name badge at the time and the victim could remember his first name - Adam - written on a badge on his work uniform, mirror.co.uk reported.

Her mother rummaged through Facebook for people in her village called Adam and she spotted a photo of a man who fitted the description - whom her daughter identified.

The woman, of Fencehouses, County Durham, contacted police and Stevenson, of St Chilton Moor, Houghton, admitted exposure at Sunderland Magistrates Court.

Stevenson, who is married with a child, had approached the girl as she waited for a bus. The incident occurred in May this year. The bus was running late. The man walked past the bus stop a couple of times and then said to her, 'have you got the time?'

She turned back around and saw that his genitals were exposed and he was moving his hand backwards and forwards. Shocked, the girl ran away.

Following his arrest, Stevenson initially denied the offence, but later admitted exposing himself to the girl, saying it was a "stupid, stupid thing to do".

The man was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay total costs of 825 pounds of which 500 pounds would go as compensation to the victim.