36 year old Victor Gaston, a North Carolina Sex Offender found his way back to prison after he allegedly sent a Facebook friend request to his victim. He was previously convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child along with five other offenses namely assault with a deadly weapon, felony larceny, failure to register as a sex offender, contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, burglary, and assault on a law enforcement officer.

He was released from prison in 2003 after serving his sentence and has since then been registered as a sex offender. He was ordered to have absolutely no contact with his victim, something which he had apparently been doing quite well until he discovered social media. Last July 4, Gaston had allegedly sent his victim a friend request. His motives for contacting his victim are unknown and in the eyes of the law, irrelevant. For all we know, he might have been after a reconciliation. Or, he could also have been hoping for a chance to harass the victim again.

He was also released on the condition that he never contact the victim again. Gaston has pleaded guilty to ‘using social media as a sex offender’ and will now be sentenced to 66 to 89 months in prison.

It’s illegal under North Carolina law to own a social media account after being listed as a registered sex offender. Facebook also disallows sex offenders from owning a Facebook profile and reserves the right to delete the person’s account if they are found out. However, neither the law nor Facebook’s policy has been quite successful in keeping these sex offenders out of cyberspace. Gaston had used his real name, which was how he got caught. However, there are others out there likely hiding behind a false identity.