Immigrant arrested trying to meet boy for sex days after being granted UK stay

Asylum seeker Omid Ebrahmi had been living at Cedar Court Hotel on Denby Dale Road, Wakefield, before he was arrested for his online predatory behaviour. The 46-year-old, who is from the Middle East, had targeted a boy on the dating app, Mingle2, in November last year but the youngster was a decoy profile set up by a hunter group and designed to catch paedophiles.

Using a translation app from Kurdish Sorani to English, the chat was "innocuous" at first, prosecutor Carmel Pearson told Leeds Crown Court.

With it being made clear by the boy that he was was just 14, Ebrahmi told him that he did not want to "get him into trouble", but soon turned the conversation sexual. He asked for pictures of the boy's penis on several occasions, and sent multiple photos of his own genitals. He also sent a video of himself masturbating and said they would have the "best sex".

They had arranged to meet in Leeds with Ebrahmi agreeing to pay for the boy's travel fare. Ebrahmi then backed out after he became suspicious that it was a trap. The hunter group were able to find where he had been staying, so contacted the police and he was arrested on December 12.

He initially denied any wrongdoing, entering not-guilty pleas and a trial date was set. He later admitted attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, arrange the commission of a child-sex offence and attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Mitigating, Timothy Jacobs said that Ebrahmi had been in the UK since 2021 and was granted a five-year pass to stay on December 8, four days before his arrest. Mr Jacobs added: "He is aware that the court will look at custody. It was unpleasant and wholly-wrong conduct, but there was no actual meeting and no actual child."

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He said that Ebrahmi was finding remand at HMP Leeds as a "living hell", being locked up for 23 hours a day and unable to speak English.

Judge Simon Phillips KC jailed him for 27 months, put him on the sex offender register for a 10 years and gave him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use.