A 25-year-old Nigerian student in the UK, Anderson Ishiekwene, has been jailed for three years and risks automatic deportation after he tried to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old girl for sex following online sexual grooming.
The BBC reported yesterday that Ishiekwene was detained in Washington, England, after arranging to meet the supposed adolescent, who was in actuality a decoy staged by an internet paedophile hunter group.
Ishiekwene, the report said, arrived in the UK from Nigeria on a student visa in August 2025 and settled in Sunderland. He started communicating with the profile on Facebook on January 2 before taking the conversation to WhatsApp.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Ishiekwene sent over 300 pages of texts to the decoy over eight days and was assured repeatedly the person he thought he was messaging was 14 years old.
During the talks he is alleged to have enquired about the girl’s school, school uniform and body, asked for explicit images and sent an image of his nude crotch. He also begged the “girl” multiple times to remove his communications.
Ishiekwene allegedly complained it was “unfair” when the decoy declined to send him pictures, adding sharing such images was a “normal thing for people to do in a relationship”.
The court heard the duo decided to meet at the Galleries retail centre in Washington on January 10. Ishiekwene is said to have informed the “girl” he wanted to kiss and have sex with her “like lovers”.
But when he arrived at the arranged place he was met by members of the paedophile hunter organization before being apprehended by police officers.
Ishiekwene denied flying to meet the youngster for sexual purposes but was convicted after a three day trial of attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming. He admits to attempting to engage in sexual conversations with a youngster.
Judge Robert Spragg said the sexual conduct Ishiekwene was about to undertake on January 10 was a “precursor” to full sexual intercourse on another occasion.
The judge said that the probation agency had said that there was “little doubt” that Ishiekwene had an attraction to minors.
The court also imposed a three-year prison sentence on Ishiekwene, ordered him to sign the sex offenders register and to comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for an unlimited period.
The judge said that Ishiekwene would probably be automatically deported from the UK after serving his jail term.
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