Pervert snared by Sheffield paedophile hunters is jailed

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Hamdi Abbas, 25, of no fixed address, had sent sexually explicit images and discussed sex before arranging to meet the contact who was posing as a young teenage girl.

Mr Singh, prosecuting, said a decoy was set up with an online identity of a 13-year-old girl and she received a friend request from this defendant.

Abbas requested a picture and sent photos of his private parts and said he wanted to have sex with the contact and he sent images of others performing sex acts, according to Mr Singh.

The defendant asked the contact if they could meet, according to Mr Singh, and he sent her an address and on January 28 police attended Cherry Street, near Bramall Lane, Sheffield, after they were alerted that paedophile hunters had detained him.

Mr Singh said: “Police attended Cherry Street having been alerted of reports of an online paedophile group having made an arrest. When they arrived they saw the defendant being detained.”

Abbas was arrested and his phone was taken and examined and it revealed images and conversations.

The defendant stated in messages to the defendant that he wanted to have sex with her and he told her he thought she was sexy and he had sent an explicit picture and had asked for a similar picture in return.

Abbas pleaded guilty to arranging the commission of a child sex offence, attempting to cause a child to watch a sex act and to attempting to incite a child to commit a sex act.

James Baird, defending, said Abbas is an asylum seeker who left Egypt in 2016 and it is likely he will be returned to Egypt once he has completed his sentence.

Mr Baird added that Abbas fully accepts the phone found by police was his and that the conversations on that phone were made by him.

Judge Rachael Harrison sentenced Abbas to eight months of custody and ordered that the defendant be made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years.