Kassim Kerrimi: Paedophile hunters snare online 'groomer' who tried to lure 'boy' to Sheffield for sex

A 46-year-old man attempted to lure an individual he believed to be a 14-year-old boy to Sheffield for sex only to be snared by a group of paedophile hunters, who were behind the online account he had been messaging and sending explicit images to. 

As he sent defendant Kassim Kerrimi to prison, taking him off Sheffield’s streets, Judge Graham Reeds KC told him: “You believed you were sending these pictures and messages to a 14-year-old boy.

“You set about arranging to meet him. You asked him to travel from Manchester - from where you believed he lived - to meet you in a car park that was a few minutes from where you lived…it’s obvious you were intending to take him to your house to have sex with him.”

From the outset of the communication between Kerrimi, and the account being used by a group - which refers to itself as North West Predator Hunters - Kerrimi was informed that the ‘boy’ he was talking to was 14-years-old, Richard Sheldon, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court. 

Mr Sheldon said “despite the boy’s age, and references to his school, the defendant told him he wanted to have sex with him”.

He also sent the boy a photo of his genitalia.

Kerrimi, of Martin Street, Crookesmoor, Sheffield, also asked the ‘boy’ to send him images.

The prosecutor said Kerrimi also asked the boy “to travel from his home and to meet him in Sheffield”.

Mr Sheldon told a hearing held on April 15, 2024 that Kerrimi’s ‘intention was to have sex’ with the boy.

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Kerrimi arranged to meet the boy at the car park of a Sheffield branch of Tesco, but when he arrived, he was ‘confronted’ by members of the paedophile hunter group, who called the police, resulting in Kerrimi’s arrest. 

Prosecutors take the view that there was an ‘element of grooming behaviour here,’ Mr Sheldon said.

Kerrimi answered ‘no comment’ to questions posed during his police interview, but subsequently entered guilty pleas to offences of attempting to arrange/ facilitate commission of sexual activity with child and attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child at an earlier hearing. 

Defending, Andrew Bailey, told Judge Reeds that Kerrimi’s offending - which took place over a nine-day period in July 2022 - amounted to ‘an attempt’ and ‘no actual child was harmed’. 

Mr Bailey also noted that no further offending was uncovered when police seized Kerrimi’s devices, adding that the possession of unlawful images is sometimes a feature of cases for defendants convicted of similar matters. 

“It was committed at a time when he was drinking a lot, which he has addressed in a meaningful sense. He is quite isolated, he lives by himself, there are some language issues, his English isn’t particularly good,” Mr Bailey said, adding that Kerrimi has British citizenship, after arriving in the UK in 2007. 

Judge Reeds jailed Kerrimi for 28 months, and told him: “You were confronted by members of the group, which set up the trap that you so voluntarily fell into.”

Judge Reeds also made Kerrimi the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, and told him he will be required to sign onto the sex offenders’ register for the same period of time.