Associated Press Writer

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Arkansas' Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the attempted rape and pandering convictions of a Texas man accused of traveling to North Little Rock to have sex with a person he met in an Internet chat room and thought was an 11-year-old girl.

Bruce Jon Kirwan of Houston, who was sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison, said he was wrongly convicted because the girl didn't exist but was instead portrayed by a North Little Rock police officer, who also posed as the girl's mother.

"As an initial matter, we consider whether a person can attempt to rape a fictional victim. In other words, could Mr. Kirwan have pleaded the defense of impossibility?" the Supreme Court asked.

The justices said Kirwan clearly behaved criminally by e-mailing pornographic pictures to "Andrea" and her mother "Michelle" and by traveling to Arkansas with cameras, lingerie, condoms and a Teddy bear for a rendezvous at an apartment.

"Driving to Arkansas was ... merely a final step in a course of conduct intended to culminate in the commission of rape," Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber wrote for the court.

The justices said evidence proved Kirwan was a sexual predator who stalked victims on the Internet. It cited cases from Illinois and Tennessee in upholding a 15-year sentence for attempted rape and a 10-year sentence for pandering. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza ordered that the sentences be served consecutively.

Thursday's order included excerpts from Kirwan's e-mail conversations with "Andrea" and "Michelle" either through direct correspondence or in an Internet chat room. Some of the messages asked her to track when it would be safe to have sexual relations without fear of pregnancy.

"Finally, on June 15, 2001, Mr. Kirwan left Houston and drove to North Little Rock to meet with Andrea and Michelle," the justices said. "Upon arriving in North Little Rock, Mr. Kirwan walked up to the apartment door expecting to find a 32-year-old mother with her 11-year-old daughter. Instead, he was arrested.

"He set out on a deliberate course of conduct designed to seduce an 11-year-old girl," the court said.

The fact that there was no 11-year-old did not change the outcome of the case, Imber wrote.

"This court declines to require the actual delivery of the young girl into the hands of the defendant, an action that would have been both dangerous to the youth and, in our opinion, unnecessary," Imber wrote.

Kirwan also said he should not have been prosecuted in Arkansas for e-mailing pornographic photos from Texas. The justices said that by knowingly distributing illegal material in Arkansas, he became subject to its laws.