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A former policy adviser to Barack Obama’s administration flew to Britain planning to rape a nine-year-old child.
Rahamim “Rami” Shy, 47, an investment banker who helped co-ordinate the US government’s counter-terror response, travelled from New York to Bedfordshire to meet an English schoolgirl.
He spent more than a month planning the trip and had packed his suitcases with cuddly toys and condoms, Luton Crown Court heard.
On an online forum and messaging apps, Shy described the “unspeakable acts” he was planning in graphic detail to someone he believed to be the girl’s grandmother.
Pervert trapped by ‘decoy’
But the grandmother, using the name Debbie, was in fact an online decoy created by an undercover officer from Bedfordshire Police.
In his messages, Shy described the girl as a “tad late” in starting sexual activity at the age of nine, and said that it was an “honour” to be considered “her first”, the court heard.
He flew to Gatwick on Feb 23 last year then drove to Bedford to meet the undercover officer, and was promptly arrested.
His lawyers tried to claim that as he was in the US at the time of the messaging, he was jurisdictionally exempt from prosecution in the UK.
But the Crown Prosecution Service successfully argued that English courts have jurisdiction to try offences committed abroad that are intended to result in criminal offences in England.
Prosecutors said the cuddly toys found in Rahamim Shy’s luggage, along with condoms, below, proved he planned to win the child over before raping her - CPS/PA Wire
Condoms found in Shy's luggage
During the trial, the court heard Shy, after arriving in Britain, tried to delete the “depraved messages” he had sent.
Other messages retrieved from his phone revealed he had discussed his sexual interest in children with others.
A cache of indecent images of children were discovered on his phone by police.
Officers also found several cuddly toys and condoms within Shy’s luggage after his arrest.
The prosecution argued the items demonstrated “a clear intent to win the child over” before abusing her.
On Wednesday, Shy was jailed for 11 years and six months after being found guilty of arranging the commission of a child sex offence – namely rape – and possessing indecent photographs of a child.
Shy was previously employed at banking group Citi, and had worked in a senior role at the US treasury department from 2008 to 2014, advising officials on countering the financing of terrorism and assisting foreign governments to impose sanctions on hostile regimes, the Daily Mail reported at the time of his arrest.
A spokesman from Citi said that Shy was no longer an employee following his arrest.
A predator bent on unspeakable acts
Shy was also deployed to Afghanistan to provide expertise to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), set up to maintain stability following the America-led invasion of the country.
According to a LinkedIn page, he provided ISAF with counter-terrorist finance expertise, and went on to present the US’s strategy on Afghanistan to a congressional hearing in 2010.
Lorraine Telford, of the CPS, said: “Rahamim Shy is a predator who was fully prepared to commit unspeakable acts against a child for his own sexual gratification.
“It was clear from his explicit conversations and items he brought to England that he had only one intention, to commit rape against what he knew was a vulnerable child.
“The fact the child in this case did not exist makes no difference, and it is a credit to the police operation and subsequent prosecution that Shy will no longer pose an immediate threat.
“All children have the right to feel safe and protected, and I hope this conviction sends a clear message that the CPS, working closely alongside law enforcement, will relentlessly pursue justice and prosecute those who seek to sexually exploit children.”
English (US)