Kate Buck reporting:
Friday 3 Aug 2018 10:36 am
A gamer who used his Playstation and Xbox as bait to sexually abuse a young child for years has been jailed for 21 years.
Anwar Ali, 33, preyed on the youngster when he was just five-years-old when he suggested he play the computer games with him in his bedroom.
Between 2003 and 2007, the young boy was raped and sexually abused more than 100 times, and the sickening campaign only ended when he moved away, a court heard.
Anwar Ali, 33, has been jailed for 21 years for a sickening campaign of sexual abuse against a five-year-old boy (Picture: Cavendish Press)
Last year, he went to police after having problems sleeping and suffering with OCD which causes him to scrub his skin until it is ‘red raw’.
When officers went to Ali’s home in Hyde, Greater Manchester, they found indecent images of children on his computer.
Ali was was found guilty of five counts of rape of a child aged under 12, four counts of sexual assault by penetration of a child under the age of 12 and two counts of accessing indecent images of children.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard Ali was 18 when he met the victim after the boy moved into his neighbourhood.
David Bentley prosecuting said: ‘The defendant’s bedroom had a Playstation and Xbox and the complainant would be invited into the bedroom with the defendant to play video games. But during 2003, when the complainant was only five years old, he approached him from behind and began kissing him. It then progressed further over the next four years.’
The court heard on one occasion the boy’s mother went upstairs to Ali’s bedroom and knocked on the door to check if her son was okay, completely unaware he was being abused inside.
He used the promise of video games to entice the boy into a private room
In a statement the victim said: ‘I felt like I could trust Anwar but he stole my childhood.
‘I have developed OCD and wash myself to the point that my skin is red raw. I have found it difficult to cope with normal experiences and I don’t like it when people touch me.’
Ali denied wrongdoing at a trial earlier this year.
Judge Tina Landale told him: ‘This was a campaign of sexual abuse which took place in your bedroom.
‘You enticed him into your bedroom with the promise of playing video games and I described it as a campaign because that there were more than 100 incidents. He says it was sometime more than once a week.
‘You kept your family in the dark with your sexual interest in young boys and you continued to rape and sexually abuse him.
‘You now walk with a stick and I am told you have erectile dysfunction – but that doesn’t stop you from being sexually titillated from child pornography online. You were still being aroused by looking at children being abused online.
‘You are still sexually interested in children and I know this because you were arrested in March 2017 for having indecent images of children.’
Ali will be on license until 2043 after his release from jail and will remain on the sex offenders register for life.
Det Con Louise Isherwood from Greater Manchester Police’s Child Protection Unit said after the case: ‘Ali is a sexual predator who not only used a young boy’s interest in computer games to abuse him over a prolonged period, but had the audacity to plead innocence from the point of police interview and right throughout the trial, forcing the victim to relive this horrific ordeal.
‘But, thanks to the courage of his victim – who did not want to tell his friends and family about this abuse and coped with it on his own before receiving specialist support from officers – we have today’s sentence, which sends out a clear message that no matter when these types of crime happen, they will be taken very seriously.’
THE TAKEAWAY
It's clear that such men have too much time on their hands and they need to rediscover their identity as God designed it in Christ. Parents must protect their children and know who their children are connecting with online. Today video games have become the latest hid out spots for sex addicts and pedophiles. Therefore, it may be time for parents to limit their children's exposure to such devices until they develop healthy social skills and internet habits. Father's need to be more involved in their children's lives and live intentionally before the Lord developing godly character and living out the difference Jesus Christ brings when one is surrendered unto Him daily as Lord.
