Ashfaq Ahmed and Yasir Jibran arrived with the intention of meeting a schoolboy to participate in a sexual encounter with them.
Ashfaq Ahmed, 26, and Yasir Jibran, 40, who connected via the dating application Grindr, had conversed online about locating an underage male.
Newcastle Crown Court was informed that Ahmed, who donned pyjamas featuring a Batman emblem in his profile images, transmitted a succession of obscene messages and images to individuals he believed to be four male minors, aged between 13 and 15, over the platform within a span of days in April 2017.
The court was informed that when Ashfaq Ahmed and Yasir Jibran arrived to meet a 15-year-old, they were confronted by members of the vigilante group Guardians of the North, who had created all of the “child” profiles.
The organisation established fraudulent accounts on social media and dating platforms to entrap adults seeking illicit interactions with minors.
Ashfaq Ahmed, of Warrington Road, Elswick, Newcastle, admitted three offences of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, one of attempting to have sexual communication with a child and one of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. He was jailed for two years.
Yasir Jibran, of Wingrove Gardens, Newcastle, admitted one charge of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. He has been jailed for 21 months.
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