Cybersex trial opens with conflicting accounts

March 16, 1998
Web posted at: 9:36 p.m. EST (0236 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Lawyers in the Internet rape case against Oliver Jovanovic presented conflicting portraits Monday of the encounter that led to allegations he raped and tortured a young woman for more than 20 hours.

Jovanovic, 31, a Columbia University graduate student, is charged with luring a 20-year-old Barnard College student he met on the Internet to his New York apartment for a face-to-face meeting. The two had been communicating through e-mail and Internet chat rooms for five months before the November 1996 meeting.

Prosecutor Gail Heatherly told the court that the victim was a passive small-town girl who wrote overblown e-mail in an attempt to impress a man she perceived to be much smarter than she.

Defense lawyer Jack Litman, reading a number of those e-mail communications to the jury, described a disturbed young woman who wrote of her interest in dismemberment and graphically violent films.

Related stories:

• FBI to parents: Internet pedophiles a serious threat - March 11, 1998
• U.S. seeks world's help to fight Internet crime - December 3, 1997
• Internet measures to protect children announced - December 2, 1997
• Internet sting identifies 1,500 suspected child pornographers - September 30, 1997

Related sites:

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• FBI
• missingkids.com
  • National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
  • CyberTipline
• Larry's World
  • Teen Safety on the Information Highway

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