YORK SUPERMARKET BOSS SENT SEXUAL IMAGES OF CHILDREN VIA WHATSAPP
A York supermarket boss is today on the sex offenders’ register after he was involved in WhatsApp exchanges of indecent images of young children.Nadeem Ashraf, 55, who manages three local stores and employs 30 staff, was found by police forensic investigators to have received sexual images of children as young as two or three years old and distributed images of children as young as four or five.
One of the images depicted a child aged six to eight in distress.
His barrister Rhianydd Clement stated, “He doesn’t have a sexual interest in children,” and added that Ashraf had not deliberately sought out such images or liked what he received, only exchanging thousands of messages with others, with a small number including illegal attachments.
Ashraf, of Moor Lane, Acomb, pleaded guilty to three charges of distributing indecent images, three of making indecent images by receipt, and one of possessing extreme pornography, acknowledging that he had been sent the illegal content by a friend in 2021, and had since desisted.
Judge Simon Hickey sentenced him to 20 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, with conditions including 20 days' rehabilitative activities and 100 hours of unpaid work.
He will be on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
The judge declined a request to impose a sexual harm prevention order, citing the lack of offending since 2021 and the controls under the sex offenders' register.
Ashraf had engaged in lengthy WhatsApp exchanges, including one dating back to 2006 with over 3,500 messages and 1,600 attachments, asking for illegal videos to be resent.
Most of the illegal material involved children, including cases involving children as young as two or three, and a child in distress aged six to eight.
He was found to have sent and received illegal images with four individuals and had asked for a resend of a video.
The case highlighted that Ashraf had not reoffended since his arrest three years prior and was remorseful, recognizing the shame he brought onto his family.
His criminal activity involved the exchange of illegal images via WhatsApp, with the illegal materials including videos and pictures of varying severity, including some of the most serious category.
His sentence reflects the recognition that this case involved fewer images and less internet searching than typical cases, but nonetheless involved serious offenses.
