A Sheffield man has been jailed for grooming and sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Shoaib Mohammed, 34 from Firth Park Road, Sheffield, contacted the girl via Snapchat in 2021, when she was 14. He befriended her and convinced her he was starting a romantic relationship, lying to her about his age and concealing that he was married.

After months of online grooming, including increasingly sexualised exchanges, he persuaded her to leave her home in Leicester to visit him in Sheffield. The victim at that time was 15. He drove her to Manchester and sexually abused her in is car before returning to Sheffield. There he secured hotel rooms to continue sexually abusing her over several days. During her stay he left her abandoned in hotel rooms for hours at a time, including overnight, while he went back to his home life.

The victim’s family reported her as missing while she was away. Police searching for her connected her with Mohammed. Mohammed, knowing the authorities and her family were looking for her, panicked and sent her home.

Mohammed was traced by the police and proceeded to deny all involvement, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. He continued this denial until he eventually pleaded guilty to a series of child sex and indecent images offences.

He was sentenced today, 29 October, at Leicester Crown Court to 11 years imprisonment, with a three-year extended licence. He was also handed a 15-year sexual harm prevention order limiting his contact with under 18s and online activity.

Nicola Potts from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “The evidence that this man groomed and abused the victim in this case was conclusive. However, his continued denials have taken years of work to bring him to justice as we built a case that stopped his lies in their tracks.

“Shoaib Mohammed preyed on a young victim while posing as a caring friend and romantic partner. The way he manipulated her and abused her at such a young age has caused her far-reaching damage. I hope that having her voice heard in court and seeing him jailed today will help that young woman in her recovery and will show that he alone is responsible for what happened to her.”

DC Daljinder Gill from Leicestershire police said: “Following the sentence, we want to hear from anyone else who may have experienced similar behaviour from Mohammed or who has concerns about contact they have had with him.

“If anything about this case feels familiar to you, please come and speak to us. You will be listened to, taken seriously and supported.”

Building the case

Shoaib Mohammed made a series of denials that his actions constituted any kind of sexual offence. Every claim he made was met by evidence secured by detectives from Leicestershire Police and a CPS prosecutor specialising in sexual offences.

Initially Mohammed claimed that he had thought the victim was over 18. Police officers went through Mohammed’s phone meticulously finding several references to the victim’s age. She had talked about her mock GCSEs and school life and had asked him directly if she was allowed to travel alone to meet him if she was under 16.

When presented with this evidence, he then denied any sexual activity. The CPS was able to rebut this claim because police had preserved forensic evidence from their initial enquiries into the case.

The CPS also showed the defence CCTV evidence that he had checked into the first two hotels alone, before taking the victim inside and witness accounts that other hotels had challenged him about booking a room with someone of the victim’s age. This was presented as evidence that he knew his activities would cause suspicion.

Mohammed had also kept images from his online grooming, when he persuaded the victim to send him explicit images and videos.

The CPS then engaged with Mohammed’s defence representatives, making it clear that he could not possibly hope to be acquitted at trial given the strength of the evidence of his targeting, grooming and sexual activity with the victim and that he could not have had any reasonable belief about her real age.