A man who posed as a teenager is jailed for grooming and sexually abusing three girls

An ex-warehouse employee who posed as a teenage boy online to groom and sexually abuse three young girls has been jailed.

Ruhel Miah, 48, pleaded guilty to 15 counts related to child sexual abuse, inciting a child into sexual activity and sexual communication with a child and was sentenced to 10 years at Wolverhampton Crown Court today (5 September).

An investigation by West Midlands police and subsequent prosecution review revealed that Miah posed as 15-year-old boy to groom three young girls through the social media platform Snapchat.

After initial contact with his victims, he began to try to build an emotional connection with them before quickly making the conversation sexual.

Miah either arranged to meet the girls or turned up unannounced where he knew they would be and persuaded them to get into his car. Once alone with them he persuaded them to engage in illegal sexual activity which he recorded. The recordings were recovered from his mobile phone.

Robbie Weber of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Ruhel Miah is a man in his 40s, who posed as a 15-year-old boy on social media to target and groom three vulnerable young girls. He subjected them to terrible sexual abuse both online and in person.

“We would like to recognise the victims in the case and understand these experiences can be difficult to talk about, but once they came forward our prosecutors were able to build a strong case that forced Miah to plead guilty to 15 counts of illegal child sexual activity and has led to him being jailed.

“The Crown Prosecution Service is dedicated to pursuing justice for victims of child sexual offending and will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to prevent online child exploitation from various forms of abuse.”