41-Year-Old Man Who Planned to Marry a 13-Year-Old British Girl in Order to Stay in the UK After His Visa Expired Travelled With a Ring to Meet the Girl, But When He Got There, He Got the Shock of His Life

A former Indian university student has been jailed after a court heard he tried to arrange a marriage with what he believed was a 13-year-old British girl in an attempt to stay in the UK after his visa expired.

Vijay Mundrathi, 41, had been studying as a postgraduate student at the University of Sheffield when he began communicating with someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl on Facebook. However, the girl did not exist. She was actually a decoy being used to expose people who target children online.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that Mundrathi’s messages quickly became sexual and disturbing. Prosecutors said he repeatedly sent explicit messages and even recorded and sent naked videos of himself while showering.

The court also heard that Mundrathi asked shocking questions about the girl’s supposed six-year-old sister. He wanted to know whether the young child would still be awake if he visited and had sex with the teenager in her bedroom. The messages became increasingly graphic as he believed he was building a relationship with the child.

During the conversations, Mundrathi allegedly revealed another motive behind his plans. He told the girl that he needed to marry a “British girl” because he wanted to secure his immigration status in the UK. He promised that he would buy her a house when she was old enough, according to the court.

In April this year, Mundrathi travelled by train from Sheffield to Doncaster, believing he was going to meet the 13-year-old girl for the first time.

Instead, he was confronted by members of the paedophile hunter group Ride to Jail. The vigilante group detained him until police arrived.

Prosecutor Eugene Cross told the court that when Mundrathi was stopped, he was carrying several items, including a bottle of prosecco, rings and his passport. Prosecutors said these items supported the evidence that he intended to meet the child and carry out his plans.

The court also heard that this was not an isolated incident. Over a period of just more than two weeks, between April 8 and April 25, Mundrathi was also involved in sexually explicit online conversations with three other decoys whom he believed were 14-year-old girls.

During the hearing, it was revealed that Mundrathi’s UK student visa had already expired.

His defence lawyer, Chris Aspinall, said his client had gone through a series of personal problems before committing the offences. He told the court that Mundrathi had lost his life savings in a cryptocurrency scam and then failed to renew his student visa, describing it as a “catalogue of misfortune.”

The lawyer also admitted there had been thoughts of marrying a young British girl so that Mundrathi could remain in the UK, but described the plan as badly thought out because of the ages of the girls he had targeted.

Judge Rachel Harrison rejected any excuse for his actions and sentenced Mundrathi to three years and 10 months in prison.

As well as his prison sentence, he was placed on the sex offenders register for life. The judge also imposed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, ordered him to pay a £228 victim surcharge and made a barring order against him.

Mundrathi had previously admitted four counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and one count of arranging the commission of a child sex offence.