An asylum seeker who posed as a ‘Justin Bieber lookalike’ online to groom children into performing sex acts on webcam has been found guilty of 14 sexual offences, including a sex attack on a six-year-old girl.
Mauritius-born Johann Ramchelawon — who months ago was wanted for immigration offences according to a local media report of previous, unrelated crimes — was arrested in Huddersfield after police traced an IP address used to message a 12-year-old girl in Manchester.
The 30-year-old set up fake accounts on social media websites including Facebook and Instagram in order to groom underage girls online, using profile pictures he stole from the internet of a teenage boy who police described as resembling ‘a young Justin Bieber’.
Claiming he was from Halifax, Ramchelawon “used various aliases including Ryan Smith and ‘Santiago’ and claimed to be a teenager who was sending messages during school or college lessons”, according to Detective Constable Kerry Haywood, from West Midlands Police Public Protection Unit.
“He sent poems, would call them ‘baby’ and tell them he loved them after chatting online for little more than a day.
“However, he quickly steered the chats to intimate subjects and persuaded them to take their clothes off − and he then used these naked images to blackmail them into sending more explicit pictures and videos.”
At Stafford Crown Court, Ramchelawon was convicted of two counts of inciting a girl to engage in sexual acts, eight counts of possessing indecent images of children, and two of distributing the images.
He was also convicted of penetration and sexual assault against a six-year-old girl from Coventry in October last year, and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.
The Huddersfield Examiner described Ramchelawon as an “asylum seeker on the run” in April after he gave a false name to police when arrested for being drunk and disorderly.
Telling police his name was Ashraf Choudry, and giving details of someone born in the UK, Ramchelawon was given a community resolution for being drunk and disorderly and released.
However, at Leeds Crown Court he admitted attempting to pervert the court of justice, after police discovered the real identity of the Mauritian, who it had emerged was wanted for immigration offences.
“I know, I’m going to be deported,” Ramchelawon told police on his second arrest, according to the Examiner.
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