That's actually reassuring. A court that behaves sensibly is a good thing...though I sort of wish they could charge him with some sort of stupidity fines.

He'd have a much better case suing the girl and her parents/guardians for fraud and deceit.

Also, if she looks 18 like so many 14 years old do, if he really and truly thought she was 18, giving him which a possible 15-year prison term and lifetime classification as a sex offender is a huge travesty of justice but one that happens way way too often.

It is too bad this man is ending up with a "Sexual Offender" tag because of this. In this day in age here in the US, the meaning of that tag is so loose I fear it will soon lose it orginal meaning of someone who is a predator.

As for the guy. I don't know how old he is but one should be able to too use 18+ only web sites with out cupability. It not like he was on a Disney chat site or trolling the middle schools. He shouldn't have to ask for ID

I would put money on the fact that this 14yo's problems go much further than this incident.

I wonder how they met up. She's not old enough to drive. Her place? If so, were the Hannah Montana posters not enough of a clue?

Some people are unbelievably bad at guessing age. I have a friend that is always 5-10 years off.