A Bradford man was sentenced to 26 months in prison for possessing and distributing indecent images of children.

Haseeb Rashad, 23, of Highlands Close, Bradford, was arrested in March 2020 after a joint investigation by the US authorities and the UK's National Crime Agency. He had been bragging online about indecent images he had taken, unaware he was communicating with an undercover police officer.

Rashads online activity was flagged to the NCA by US authorities, who had been monitoring his communications on the instant messaging app Telegram. An undercover UK officer, posing as "SwimDad," made contact with Rashad online. During their conversations, Rashad expressed his desire to abuse children and discussed plans to travel to Eastern Europe to exploit minors.

Upon his arrest, police discovered over 600 indecent images of children on Rashad's phone and computer. He pleaded guilty to nine charges, including taking and distributing indecent images of a young boy and possessing prohibited images of children.

The court heard that Rashad had suffered from PTSD as a result of being groomed by an older man who had encouraged him to take the indecent images. Despite this, Recorder Benjamin Nolan QC sentenced Rashad to 26 months in prison, stating that "these offences were particularly vile involving very young children."

Rashads sentence included 18 months for two counts of category A offences, nine months for two category B offences, six months for the category C offences, and eight months for taking and distributing indecent images of a child. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

The court heard that Rashad had initially denied having a sexual interest in children, claiming he had only clicked on the indecent images and then shared them without actually viewing them. However, he later cooperated with the investigation and provided access to his phone and computer.