Dad tried to see underage teen
A married dad was confronted by paedophile hunters when he turned up to a meet an imaginary 14-yearold virgin for sex.
Saber Ali thought he had been chatting to the underage schoolgirl on the Scout social media app, and asked her “can I come to your home for sex?”
Newcastle Crown Court heard that, despite being repeatedly told he was talking to an inexperienced schoolgirl, the 45-year-old bombarded her with explicit chat, sent her a graphic picture and described in shocking detail what he would like to do to her.
When Ali asked her to send a naked image of herself and she refused, he told her “I’m your BF now”, a commonly-used abbreviation of ‘boyfriend’.
The court heard within seven hours of making contact with the supposed child on July 26 last year, Ali turned up at Chapman Street, off Sea Road, in Sunderland, to meet her but was confronted by Guardians of the North.
The organisation’s members pose as children online to snare perverts and had set up the Scout profile under a fake name.
Ali, of Tatham Street, in the East End of Sunderland, was arrested by police, who had been alerted by the group, and claimed he had no bad intentions and had planned to tell the girl to “go home”.
He later pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.
Judge Penny Moreland sentenced him to 15 months behind bars with a five-year sexual harm prevention order and 10 years on the sex offenders’ register.
Judge Moreland rejected Ali’s defence team’s requests for the jail term to be suspended.