A Pakistan-origin man in the United Kingdom was sentenced by Newcastle Crown Court to 17 months in prison after he was found guilty of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.
The 39-year-old man named Adil Sultan reportedly claimed in court that he did not realise that it was illegal to have sex with a 14-year-old.
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Sultan was exposed by the vigilante group Guardians of the North that targets people who look to have sex with children by creating fake accounts.
The 39-year-old thought he was chatting with a 14-year-old girl called Laura on social media. He asked the girl to send him explicit photos of herself. He even travelled from Sunderland to Middlesbrough in August last year to meet the girl he thought he was chatting with. Instead, he was greeted by the paedophile group.
Sultan is also accused of using the false name Rashid Ali on social media. He also lied about his age because he is 39-year-old and not 25 — as he claimed on his fake social media accounts.
Sultan said during the hearing that he cannot return to Pakistan due to the outrage caused by a recent child rape case there. Instead, he was planning to apply for asylum in the United Kingdom.
His advocate Mohammed Rafiq said in the court Sultan did not have any past record of trouble. Sultan did not intend to have sex with a young person deliberately, he claimed.
Rafiq said: "He [Sultan] apologises to the court for his actions. He has brought shame upon himself and his family, who have found out about his circumstances because he has been in custody. He has instructed me that it would be unsafe for him to go back to his country and someone else is instructed to make an application for asylum."
During sentencing, Judge Penny Moreland told Sultan: "Your barrister tells me you thought it was OK to have sex with 14-year-olds. That is no excuse and offers you no mitigation."
