BOSTON -- A Virginia man has been found guilty of trying to kidnap a Massachusetts girl he met in an Internet chat room, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said.

Daniel O’Brien, 32, of Virginia, was found guilty by a Middlesex Superior Court jury on charges of attempted kidnapping and child enticement. Investigators said O'Brien traveled from Virginia in 2009 to meet a pre-teen girl in Littleton he had met over the Internet in a chat room.

“This defendant used the anonymity of the Internet to entice and manipulate the young victim to run away with him,” Leone said.

Investigators said in November 2009, Littleton police were contacted by a man who was concerned about Internet communications between his girlfriend’s daughter, 12, and a Virginia man. The man said the girl was acting unusual one morning and her backpack was filled with extra clothes and money. After dropping her off at school, the man and the girl's mother found e-mail exchanges between the girl and O'Brien. Investigators said in the e-mails, O'Brien offered to help the girl run away from home.

Investigators said O'Brien planned to take a bus from Virginia to Boston and then take the girl back with him.

Police arrested O'Brien at a Littleton train station. Investigators said O'Brien admitted to them that he knew the girl's age and he planned to take her back to Virginia.

O’Brien will be sentenced in June 29.