HARTFORD, Conn. – A second convicted sex offender has been accused of violating his parole by creating a profile on the social networking site MySpace.com without his parole officer's permission.
William Santos, 21, of Waterbury, was taken into state Department of Correction custody this week, according to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
MySpace recently provided law enforcement officials in all 50 states with the names of more than 17,000 people identified as sex offenders who had created profiles on the site.
In Connecticut, 264 registered sex offenders have been found on MySpace, up from the 109 whose names were first disclosed by the company. All 264 offenders have had their profiles deleted from the site, MySpace officials said.
"This arrest demonstrates that many of these convicted sex offenders are violating their parole and socializing in the same space as millions of children," Blumenthal said. "As astonishing and appalling as the discovery of thousands of sex offenders on MySpace, these convicted felons using their real names are only the tip of the predator iceberg."
Santos was convicted in October 2000 of second-degree sexual assault against a minor and illegal sexual contact against a minor, according to the state Department of Public Safety's sex offender registry. He established a MySpace profile on Sept. 10, 2006, Blumenthal said.
Earlier this month, Christopher Montefusco, 30, who had been convicted of first-degree sexual assault in 1996, was taken back into Department of Correction custody for creating a MySpace profile.
Social networking sites such as MySpace allow users to create online profiles with photos, music and personal information, and let them send messages to one another and, in many cases, browse other profiles.
Santos will remain in custody at least until the Board of Pardons and Paroles holds a hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.
Myspace.com is owned by News Corp., the parent company of FOX News.
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