A student has been jailed for 10 months after being caught looking for sex with underage girls online. Abdulkarim Abdulrahman, 21, contacted the creator of a post for female escorts on a website offering teenage girls to have sex with.
After messaging a woman who claimed to be in charge of the escort site, she arranged a fee of £70, which was so Abdulrahman could abuse a 14-year-old girl for 30 minutes. But the paedo madam he believed he was speaking to was actually an undercover police officer working on Operation Overview – an operation launched in 2022 to track down and arrest “high-harm” threats to children.
Abdulrahman offered to pay the sum in exchanged for half-an-hour of sex and was provided details of where to meet her in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland in May last year. Officers were awaiting his arrival, but he did not show up. Weeks later he was arrested after being found in Glasgow.
Abdulrahman, of Glasgow, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted attempting to obtain the sexual services of a child under the age of 18.
Sheriff Colin Dunipace said he had a duty to protect young females and that there was no alternative to jail.
Abdulrahman was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Depute fiscal Scott O’Connor told the court: “As part of Operation Overview an advert was posted online which appeared to offer escort services of young girls in the Glasgow area for sexual purposes.
“Any individual who responded to this advert was subsequently advised that the escorts were 14 and 15-year-old females.
“In May a mobile phone number made contact with the undercover officer via a text message and the officer advised the user to call to make arrangements and she later received an incoming call.
“The undercover officer confirmed it was 14 and 15-year-old females available for sexual services and the caller confirmed he was looking for 30 minutes with the 14-year-old and a fee of £70 was agreed.”
Matthew McGovern, defending, said: “He accepts full responsibility for the offence.
“I submit society is better served by the consideration and imposition of a community payback order instead of a custodial sentence.”
Sheriff Dunipace said: “These courts have made it clear that one of our prominent duties is the protection of children from predatory sexual activity.
“The courts accept that this type of offence attracts considerable public revulsion which requires to be acknowledged and a message has to be sent out that the courts will not accept this type of behaviour.
“This involved some degree of planning and involved you expecting to sexually exploit a young and vulnerable child.
“I have concluded that for the protection of the public and young females in particular, notwithstanding your lack or record and age, that a significant custodial sentence requires to be imposed.”
Operation Overview was launched in 2022 and has so far led to the arrest of dozens of ‘high-harm’ threats to children in Scotland.
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