Trainee doctor jailed after attempting to meet fictitious teenage girl to engage in sexual activity
A trainee doctor has been jailed for attempting to meet a fictitious 15-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity.
Jamil Rehman, 35, contacted an online profile purporting to be the teenage girl and did not realise it was a decoy set up by a group of so-called paedophile hunters.
Swansea Crown Court (pictured) heard Rehman travelled for four hours from his home in Derby to Carmarthen in West Wales to meet the girl in April 2019.
Police discovered he had booked a hotel room for two people, with officers also finding red roses and pills to delay orgasm in his car.
It also emerged that Rehman had been contacting a second online profile, purporting to be a 13-year-old girl.
Married father-of-two Rehman denied the charges against him at trial, claiming he wanted to help the girls as they were vulnerable and that he had confused the word “restaurant” with “hotel”.
He insisted he only wanted the 15-year-old girl to act as a tour guide and show him the beaches of West Wales during his visit.
Judge Paul Thomas jailed Rehman, who was convicted by a jury of attempting to meet a girl aged under 16 following grooming and attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence, for 20 months.
The judge described Rehman’s explanations as “frankly ludicrous” and said his offending was so serious that it justified an immediate custodial sentence.
He told Rehman on Tuesday: “Both of these girls were fictitious. You didn’t know that.
“Over the course of the trial you put forward a series of frankly ludicrous explanations, trying to dissuade the jury that your intentions were not only unmotivated by sexual lust but were positively altruistic.
“You claimed to be concerned for the welfare of the girls. I consider that you did consider them to be vulnerable, which is why you targeted and continued to groom them. You encouraged them to meet you.”
The judge said Rehman’s work as a trainee doctor meant he would have been aware of the impact of what he intended to do, which was to “use these underage girls for your sexual purposes”.
Rehman has Pakistani citizenship and is in the UK on a work visa, which will no longer apply as he is now unable to work in his profession.
Judge Thomas told Rehman that sending him to prison would have an impact on his wife and two children, as well as resulting in the loss of his career.
“It is a shame that all the hard work you have put in over many years has been destroyed by what you did,” the judge said.
“It was not a moment of madness, it was a calculated course of conduct.”
He described how Rehman had demonstrated a “mixture of arrogance combined with hypocritical outbursts” during the trial, adding that there was “no realistic prospect of rehabilitation”.
The judge also ordered Rehman to be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
Speaking after the case, Julie Jones of the Crown Prosecution Service said a “strong case” had been built against Rehman.
“It is fortunate that Jamil Rehman did not meet any children in this case, but it serves as a stark reminder to everyone of the dangers that children can face on social media,” she said.
Copyright (c) PA Media Ltd. 2021, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Tim Ireland / PA.
