Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A 25-year-old Nigerian student in the United Kingdom, Anderson Ishiekwene, has been sentenced to three years in prison and faces automatic deportation after being caught in a paedophile hunter sting while attempting to meet who he believed was a 14-year-old girl for sex following online sexual grooming. Newcastle Crown Court heard that Ishiekwene, who arrived in the UK from Nigeria on a student visa in August 2025 and settled in Sunderland, began communicating with a decoy profile on Facebook on January 2, 2026, before moving the conversation to WhatsApp.
Prosecutor Cole Cockburn told the court that over the course of eight days, Ishiekwene exchanged more than 300 pages of messages with the decoy, despite repeatedly being informed that the person he believed he was communicating with was 14 years old. During the conversations, he asked questions about the girl's school, school uniform, and body, requested explicit photographs, and sent an image of his naked groin. He also repeatedly asked the "girl" to delete his messages. When the decoy refused to send him photographs, Ishiekwene complained that it was "unfair" and claimed sharing such images was a "normal thing for people to do in a relationship," the court heard.
The pair agreed to meet at the Galleries shopping centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear, on January 10, 2026. Ishiekwene allegedly told the "girl" he wanted to kiss and sexually touch her "like lovers." However, when he arrived at the agreed location, he was confronted by members of the paedophile hunter group Guardians of the North, who had set up the fake profile. Police were called, and Ishiekwene was arrested at the scene. Footage taken during the confrontation shows Ishiekwene covering his eyes while members of the group ask why he has turned up to meet a child. He is told to "stop resisting" and "behave" while informed he is the subject of a citizen's arrest before being restrained on the floor.
Although Ishiekwene denied travelling to meet the child for sexual purposes, a jury found him guilty after a three-day trial of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. He had earlier admitted attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child. Sentencing him on Monday, August 3, 2026, Judge Robert Spragg said the sexual activity Ishiekwene intended on January 10 was a "precursor" to full sexual intercourse on a later occasion. The judge also noted that the probation service believed there was "little doubt" Ishiekwene was attracted to children. In addition to the three-year prison sentence, the court ordered Ishiekwene to sign the sex offenders register and comply indefinitely with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. The judge further stated that Ishiekwene would most likely face automatic deportation from the UK upon completing his prison sentence.
Ishiekwene's defence counsel, Mark Savage, told the court that his client had an "impeccable reputation" and that the disgrace had tarnished him and his family. Savage added that Ishiekwene knew he would not be able to pursue his studies and would be deported at the end of his sentence, and that he had let himself down. The court heard that references described Ishiekwene as "respectful and obedient" and a hard-working man who was full of remorse. The case has once again highlighted the growing phenomenon of paedophile hunter groups in the UK, which have increasingly used social media decoys to expose individuals attempting to groom minors online. For Ishiekwene, the student visa that brought him to the UK eight months ago has now led to a criminal record, a prison sentence, and the certainty of deportation—a steep price for a decision that has cost him his freedom and his future.
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