AN engineer who sent sexual messages to a decoy account posing as a 12-year-old girl is "free to leave this country" and go back home after being spared prison.
Pavan Vannurappagari arrived from India last July working for Virtusa, an IT services company, but was snared by a member of a paedophile vigilante group at Colchester Station when he arranged to meet with what he thought was a young girl.
When Vannurappagari stepped off a train, however, he was ambushed by a man called Scott Mann, who detained him and contacted police.
Vannurappagari was arrested, charged, and appeared for sentencing at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday.
The court heard how Vannurappagari, of Star Lane, Ipswich, had obtained a work visa so he could work as an engineer in the UK.
By October, however, he started messaging who he thought was a 12-year-old girl called Emily Thomson who said she was from Essex.
When the conversation switched to WhatsApp, Vannurappagari asked the persona if she had reached puberty and whether she had a boyfriend, despite believing her to be 12.
He then sent links to two pornographic images and told the persona to delete the WhatsApp conversation.
Vannurappagari then travelled to Colchester Station on November 3, thinking he was going to meet the 12-year-old when he was confronted by Mr Mann.
Vannurappagari admitted attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, attempting sexual communication with a child, and attempting to incite a child to watch a pornographic image.
Stephen Dyble, mitigating, said Vannurappagari was dismissed by Virtusa shortly after he was arrested and has no money left.
He said: “The defendant does not have the means to stay in the UK – he has stayed here out of courtesy to the court because he was obliged to attend.
“He wishes to leave this country at the earliest opportunity [and] has been left impoverished by the revocation of his visa.”
Judge Talbot-Hadley said: “You want to leave this country and go back to India.
“The best use of public resources is to give you a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
“You are free to leave this country and go back home.
“You will have a lot of explaining to do to your parents.”
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