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A man who lived in Woking has been jailed for child sex offences after he was snared by paedophile hunters. Asad Ullah, 28, was sentenced to three years and nine months at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday, June 15 after admitting his crimes.
Ullah, of no fixed address, had been speaking to who he thought were young girls online in a sexually explicit manner. He had planned to meet one of them on November 10 last year.
But Ullah had actually been speaking to adult members of the public who had posed as children in order to identify paedophiles online. It was the same members of the public who met Ullah at Woking Leisure Centre when he was arrested by officers.
Ullah was charged with the offences in January this year when he was remanded to prison to await sentencing. In addition to his prison sentence, he was also given a lifetime sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offenders' register for life.
Investigating officer Dave Evans, who works in Surrey Police's paedophile online investigation team, said: Ullah displayed dangerous, predatory behaviour towards young girls. It is a relief that he is in prison where he can't continue to pose a threat to children.
"I know that this is an emotive subject for members of the public, and rightly so, but I would like to take this opportunity to urge people not to take matters into their own hands and to report any allegations straight to us so that we can carry out a full investigation." The force is also asking social media users to consider the impact on the judicial process before sharing anything online which could harm future court proceedings.