A paedophile from Lewisham who owned devices storing thousands of indecent images of children and sent sexual messages to children as a “sugar daddy” has been jailed.

Asfandyar Saleem, 28, was sentenced to just over four years in prison at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday, November 28.

He had pleaded guilty to 11 offences:

- one count of 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;
- one count of possession of extreme pornographic images.

On February 10, 2022, officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Online Child Sex Abuse and Exploitation Team executed a search warrant at Saleem’s home address where he admitted to looking at indecent images of children.

He was then arrested and his devices were seized.

After reviewing them, police established that they contained indecent images of children.

In total, police found that he possessed 2,193 illegal images, 431 of which were Category A indecent images depicting serious sexual offending.

Further to this, officers 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 undertaking sexual acts.

Saleem was charged with these offences and attended Bromley Magistrates Court in January 2023.

While awaiting trial, he created a fake LinkedIn profile pretending to be the officer who investigated him.

He then sent doctored images intended to look like they were from this officer stating the evidence against him had been fabricated.

Then, he forwarded these to the Metropolitan Police to try and disrupt the investigation.

An investigation found that all of the material had been doctored by Saleem to have his case dismissed.

On May 17, a further search warrant was executed at his home address where he was arrested.

Another device was found and when examined by the High-Tech Crime Unit, it was found to contain all of the doctored images, messages and the fake LinkedIn profile, as well as the Twitter account he used to send the messages.

Saleem was charged by the CPS and remanded into custody.

He pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court on October 24.

Detective James Cronin of the OCSAE (Online Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation) team from Central Specialist Crime 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.”

Acting Superintendent Jo Lloyd, Specialist Crime, said: “Officers from this dedicated unit are working tirelessly to take predators off the streets.

“Should anyone have information regarding child sex abuse please do not hesitate to contact the police via 101. In an emergency, dial 999.”