Man who paid children for sex acts created fake police LinkedIn account to clear name
A man who had thousands of indecent images of children on devices kept in his flat has been jailed after he tried to disrupt the investigation.
Asfandyar Saleem, 28, from Lewisham, was sentenced to 52 months imprisonment at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday, after he had created a fake LinkedIn account of a police officer to try and close his investigation.
He had previously pleaded guilty to 11 offences including perverting the course of justice, three counts of making an indecent image of a child, six counts of attempted sexual communication with a child under the age of 16 and one count of possession of extreme pornographic images.
On February 10, 2022, officers executed a search warrant at Saleem’s home address where he admitted to viewing indecent images of children.
He was arrested and his devices were seized.
In total officers found 2,193 illegal images, including 431 Category A indecent images of children which showed serious sexual offending.
Officers also found Saleem had engaged in sexual conversations with children under the age of 16 on the “KIK” social messenger app where he would act as “sugar daddy” to children, paying them with gift cards for pictures of them doing sexual acts.
He was charged with these offences and attended Bromley Magistrates Court in January 2023.
But, whilst awaiting trial he created a fake LinkedIn profile, pretending to be the investigating officer who was in charge of his case.
He sent doctored images and messages to the Met pretending to be from this officer, stating the evidence against him had been fabricated.
The Met found all the material had been doctored by Saleem to have the case against him dismissed.
A further search warrant on May 17, was executed at his home where he was arrested again.
A device was found containing all the doctored images, messages, and the fake LinkedIn profile along with the Twitter account which he used to send the messages.
Saleem was charged by the CPS and remanded into custody. Due to the strength of evidence, he pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court on October 24
Met Detective James Cronin said: “Saleem is a convicted paedophile who preyed on children and launched a fraudulent campaign to have the case against him dismissed.
“This court result shows that Met officers will do everything possible to bring perpetrators to justice. “
Pictured top: Asfandyar Saleem (Picture: The Met)
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