NOTTINGHAM MAN JAILED FOR GROOMING AND ABUSING 14-YEAR-OLD BOY
A sexual predator from Nottingham met a 14-year-old boy and bought him a “secret” phone they could use to contact each other in return for perverted favours.Nottingham Crown Court heard how Bineet Bhanji took the boy back to an address in the city where activity took place before they caught a tram to the city centre, where he bought the phone and a McDonald's meal.
The 31-year-old referred to the victim as his “boyfriend”.
Their short relationship was discovered when the boy’s mother found a tram ticket in one of his pockets.
At the time, Bhanji was the subject of a suspended sentence order for previous child sex offences.
Judge Stuart Rafferty KC sentenced Bhanji to seven-and-a-half years in prison, stating: “You are living a lie.
You persist in pretending you have no sexual interest in children.
You persist in pretending this was not your fault and that you were led into this by a 14-year-old boy.
“You persist in pretending this did not happen and that he was willing, so you are not to blame at all.
In other words, you were behaving in precisely the way that almost every sexual predator behaves, and you are a sexual predator.
“You were surfing the internet looking to strike up a relationship, and you found a 14-year-old boy.
It must have been apparent that he was unsophisticated and vulnerable.
He had been abused and was damaged, he had no confidence, he was destined not to have friends.
“He was 17 years younger than you and that did not deter you.
You planned, I have absolutely no doubt, what happened and you gave no thought to what that boy would suffer.
All you were concerned about was you.
You groomed him.” The prosecutor, Thomas Welshman, said the victim had been abused as a child and met Bhanji on a website.
They began to exchange sexual messages before agreeing to meet in person at the beginning of this year.
The defendant took the boy to Long Eaton, where activity occurred before they went to Ruddington Lane tram stop, and Bhanji said he would buy the victim a phone so they could have ‘secret conversations’.
They then went to an EE store where a SIM card was put in, and he took him to McDonald's.
The boy’s mother later found a tram ticket, and police became involved.
Bhanji, of Radford Boulevard, Radford, pleaded guilty to meeting a child after grooming, engaging in sexual activity with a child, and breaching a suspended sentence order and a sexual harm prevention order.
In a victim impact statement, the boy said: “What he did has really affected me.
I feel embarrassed, and if people find out, I will probably be bullied again.
This man betrayed my trust and made me feel I can’t trust anyone.” Andrew Wesley, representing Bhanji, said: “He was assessed as being fit to plead and he pleaded guilty.” The full sentence was 12 years and three months, of which 7.5 years are in custody with the remainder on extended licence.
Bhanji will stay on the sex offender register for life and is subject to a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.
