A 25-year-old Nigerian student, Anderson Ishiekwene, has been sentenced to three years in prison by a UK court after he was found guilty of attempting to meet what he believed was a 14-year-old girl for sex following days of online sexual grooming. The Newcastle Crown Court also ruled that Ishiekwene would be placed on the Sex Offenders Register, made subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and is expected to face automatic deportation after completing his prison sentence.

Prosecutors told the court that Ishiekwene, who arrived in the United Kingdom on a student visa in August 2025 and settled in Sunderland, began communicating with a Facebook profile on January 2 before moving the conversation to WhatsApp. Over eight days, he allegedly exchanged more than 300 pages of messages, despite repeatedly being told the person was 14 years old. During the conversations, he allegedly requested explicit photographs, sent an indecent image of himself and repeatedly asked the supposed teenager to delete their chats.

The court heard that Ishiekwene arranged to meet the girl at The Galleries shopping centre in Washington, England, where he intended to kiss and sexually touch her. Instead, he was confronted by members of an online paedophile hunter group, whose decoy profile had been communicating with him, before police officers arrived and arrested him. Although he denied travelling to meet a child for sexual purposes, a jury convicted him after a three-day trial of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. He had earlier admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

While delivering judgment, Judge Robert Spragg described the planned encounter as a precursor to further sexual activity and noted the probation service’s assessment that there was “little doubt” Ishiekwene was sexually attracted to children. Alongside the prison sentence, the court ordered his indefinite compliance with restrictions designed to protect children, with UK immigration laws expected to trigger his deportation once his custodial term ends.