Rashid Al-Waeli

An asylum seeker housed in a Norwich hotel has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for online sex offences targeting what he believed to be a minor. Rashid Al-Waeli, a 30-year-old national of Yemen, was staying at the Brook Hotel in Bowthorpe, one of two facilities in the city utilised by the Home Office for temporary immigrant accommodation, when he engaged in the illicit communications.

The court heard that between September and October 2023, Al-Waeli initiated contact with a decoy profile on a website called Sugar, falsely presenting himself as 22 years old. The conversation soon shifted to WhatsApp, where he made repeated requests for intimate photographs, stating he wanted to 'see your body' and later asking to see pictures of the 'victim's' genitals with messages such as 'Show me what you have.' Prosecuting barrister Ian James highlighted the persistent nature of these requests for sexual imagery from someone who had disclosed being only 14 years old.

Al-Waeli sent the decoy images and videos of his own privates and responded enthusiastically to a selfie, calling the recipient 'so beautiful.' The decoy was operated by an adult member of a paedophile hunter group, who reported the exchanges to the police. Officers subsequently attended the Brook Hotel, seized Al-Waeli's phone, and halted the communications.

Appearing at Norwich Crown Court this week via an Arabic interpreter, Al-Waeli admitted to three counts of attempted child sex offences—specifically, attempting to incite a person under 18 to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to look at an image of sexual activity, and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child—as well as making indecent photographs of a child. Judge Alice Robinson, sentencing on Wednesday, noted that the defendant had 'repeatedly' sought sexual images from the purported minor. She imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years and required registration on the sex offenders' register for the same duration.

Mitigating, barrister Martin Ivory acknowledged the offending was 'persistent' over a six-week period but described it as 'comparatively short.' He explained that Al-Waeli had begun messaging out of 'curiosity' but descended into a 'rabbit hole of inappropriate online behaviour.' Ivory emphasised that the defendant could not confide in his family due to the severe risks in Yemen, where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death. Despite the sentence exceeding one year for sexual offences, which typically bars asylum claims under UK government rules, Al-Waeli's legal team may seek to invoke protections under the European Convention on Human Rights citing threats in his home country.

The case was reported by the Eastern Daily Press, with court proceedings at Norwich Crown Court. Norfolk Constabulary provided imagery of the defendant.