A former Obama administration staffer has been sentenced to prison after attempting to rape a child.
Rahamim Shy traveled from New York to Britain “after arranging online to meet a young girl for sex.”
“Shy had set up the meeting after months of correspondence, however, unbeknown to him, the girl did not exist,” a release from the Bedfordshire Police Department says. The man was “found guilty of arranging the commission of a child sex offence – namely rape and possessing indecent photographs of a child following a trial at Luton Crown Court.”
He was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison.
Investigating Officer David Paton said Shy is a “predator who had clear intentions of raping and abusing a child.”
“Child sexual abuse will not be tolerated in Bedfordshire and we’re committed to tackling offenders to prevent them from causing further harm,” Paton said. “In this case the child fortunately did not exist, but the immediate threats remain the same, and we work tirelessly to identify predators who pose a risk to our society.”
Lorraine Telford of the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement, “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.” Telford noted that “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.”
Shy worked as a Treasury Department staffer for Pakistan and Afghanistan under the Obama administration.
