A 25-year-old Nigerian student, Anderson Ishiekwene, has been sentenced to three years in prison in the UK. He will also face automatic deportation after trying to meet someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl for sex. This meeting was set up after he groomed her online.
According to the BBC on Monday, Ishiekwene was arrested in Washington, England. He arranged to meet the girl, who was actually a decoy from a paedophile hunter group.
The report says Ishiekwene came to the UK on a student visa in August 2025 and lived in Sunderland. He began chatting with the fake profile on Facebook on January 2 and then moved the conversation to WhatsApp.
Prosecutors told Newcastle Crown Court that in just eight days, Ishiekwene sent over 300 pages of messages to the decoy. He was repeatedly told that the person he was chatting with was only 14 years old.
During these chats, he asked the girl about her school, her uniform, and her body. He also requested explicit photos and sent her a picture of his naked groin. He asked the “girl” to delete his messages multiple times.
When the decoy refused to send him any photos, Ishiekwene complained that it was “unfair.” He claimed that sharing such images was a “normal thing for people to do in a relationship.”
The court heard that they planned to meet at the Galleries shopping centre in Washington on January 10. Ishiekwene told the “girl” he wanted to kiss and touch her “like lovers.”
But when he got to the meeting point, members of the paedophile hunter group confronted him. Police officers then arrested him on the spot.
Ishiekwene denied that he traveled to meet the child for sex. Still, after a three-day trial, a jury found him guilty of attempting to meet a child after sexually grooming her. He had already admitted to trying to engage in sexual talks with a child.
While sentencing him, Judge Robert Spragg said Ishiekwene’s planned sexual activity on January 10 was a “precursor” to full sexual intercourse later on.
The judge also mentioned that the probation service believed there was “little doubt” Ishiekwene was attracted to children.
In addition to the three-year prison term, the court ordered Ishiekwene to register as a sex offender. He must comply indefinitely with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The judge added that Ishiekwene would likely be automatically deported from the UK after serving his prison sentence, according to the BBC.
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