Walsall man sentenced to 10 years for online grooming and sexual abuse of young girls

WALSALL MAN SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS FOR ONLINE GROOMING AND SEXUAL ABUSE OF YOUNG GIRLS

A man has been jailed after posing as a 15-year-old boy on Snapchat to groom and sexually abuse three young girls.

Ruhel Miah, 48, from Walsall, admitted to 15 offences in total, including two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13.The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Miah used the social media platform to make contact with the victims before building up an emotional connection with them and making the conversation sexual.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The CPS said that Miah either arranged to meet the girls or turned up unannounced where he knew they would be and persuaded them to get into his car.

Once alone with them, the former warehouse employee persuaded them to engage in illegal sexual activity which he recorded.

The recordings were recovered from his mobile phone.

Robbie Weber from the CPS said Miah used social media to both target and groom his victims.

"He subjected them to terrible sexual abuse both online and in person," Mr Weber said.

"We would like to recognise the victims in the case and understand these experiences can be difficult to talk about, but once they came forward our prosecutors were able to build a strong case that forced Miah to plead guilty to 15 counts of illegal child sexual activity and has led to him being jailed.

"Further to his two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, Miah also pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and two counts of sexual communication with a child.