ESSEX UNI STUDENT SENTENCED FOR INDECENT IMAGES OFFENCE
A student who traveled from India to the UK to pursue a Master's degree used an online chatroom to engage in sexual conversations with someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl.Sanjay Chalil, aged 33, was enrolled at Essex University when he contacted a decoy account on the RandoChat app.
During the encounter, he sent explicit images of himself and encouraged what he thought was a teenage girl to send naked photos, Ipswich Crown Court was told.
Authorities searched his residence and confiscated two devices, one of which contained inappropriate images.
Chalil, now residing on Upper Fant Road in Maidstone, Kent, faced charges including three counts of possessing indecent images of a child, one count of attempting to communicate sexually with a minor, and one count of trying to induce a child to engage in sexual acts.
He denied all charges but changed his plea to guilty one week before the trial began.
It was revealed that Chalil held a professional doctorate in educational psychology obtained in India and had come to Essex University to study for a Master’s in psychology, arriving in the UK on a student visa.
Defense counsel Stephen Page stated that Chalil had completed his course but was not awarded a degree due to the ongoing legal proceedings.
He noted that Chalil would decide whether to remain in the UK based on his sentencing.
Judge Jeremy Benson, known as the Recorder, sentenced Chalil to a 17-month prison term, suspended for two years, with no requirement for unpaid work to allow him to stay in the UK to fulfill the sentence.
He also ordered Chalil to pay £500 in costs and a surcharge of £187.
Additionally, Chalil was banned from working with children and was placed under a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.
The judge advised Chalil, “My advice to him would be he should go home.” The charges related to possessing indecent images were recorded on the case file.
