Dr Jamil Rehman 38

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A Derby doctor has been jailed for his attempts to have sex with underage teen girls.

Branded "arrogant" and "hypocritical" by a judge, Dr Jamil Rehman lied repeatedly about a four-hour journey he took with the intention of meeting an underage girl for sex.

The married father-of-two will be in prison for the birth of his third child and is likely to be deported to Pakistan on his release.

The trainee GP was found guilty in August of two counts of attempted sexual grooming of underage girls after travelling from Derby to west Wales to meet a 15-year-old girl called Kayla in 2019.

When he arrived he was met by self-styled paedophile hunters, with red roses and pills designed to delay orgasm found in the boot of his car.

Police also found further messages between the 35-year-old and a 13-year-old girl named Sienna, who was also a decoy.

Rehman, of Gilling Close, Littleover, Derby, claimed that he had no desire to engage in sexual activity and wanted “Kayla” to be his tour guide on his first visit to Wales.

But his defence was labelled as "frankly laughable" and "ludicrous" by Judge Paul Thomas QC at Swansea Crown Court, after Rehman tried to tell the jury that he had mistaken the words "hotel" and "restaurant", despite booking a room with a double bed.

The judge said: "You came to west Wales from the Derby area where you were practicing as a doctor.

"You came down here which, on my calculation, is a four-hour journey for one purpose and that purpose was to have full sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl.

"Your intentions were to have sexual intercourse with her.

"You claimed in the course of the trial to be concerned for the welfare of vulnerable girls. You did believe them to be vulnerable, which is why you targeted and attempted to groom them.

"As a man who was training to be a general practitioner, you would have known full well the potential impact of what you attempted to do.

"You were a married man, you simply wanted to use these underage girls for sexual purposes. You did lie about your age online and you did so deliberately."

Rehman was sentenced to 20 months in prison and placed on the Sex Offender's Register for 10 years, with the details of a sexual harm prevention order to be set.

He met who he thought were the underage girls in a chatroom called Meet4U, before having private conversations on WhatsApp.

He then travelled from Derby to Carmarthen, a journey of around 220 miles.

Eugene Egan, defending, told the court that Rehman, who is expecting a third child in December, was in the UK on a work visa and thus will likely have to return to his native Pakistan upon his release.

However he acknowledged that his client had fabricated much of his defence in his trial.

He said: "What he told the jury was concocted and a pack of lies.

"Perhaps for the first time now, on the day of sentencing, there is a genuine acknowledgement of what he has done.

"He has thrown away his career. The consequences for him will be harsh and substantial. He has thrown all that away through gross stupidity on his behalf."

Tracy Harrison, chief executive of Safe and Sound, a Derbyshire charity which supports young people who are victims of child exploitation including online grooming as well as their families, had previously voiced concern over the case.

She said: “This is a deeply disturbing case and highlights the increased dangers facing young people of online grooming.

"This particular case thankfully did not put a young person in danger but, for every instance that a perpetrator is trapped in a sting operation, there are countless others who fall victim to online predators.