A London sex offender who travelled to Yorkshire to sexually assault a youngster has been sentenced.
Hegoda Makalanda, 45, of Enfield, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday at Sheffield Crown Court after being apprehended during a covert police operation.
He was also put on the Sex Offenders Register forever and issued a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely.
The court heard how Makalanda travelled from the capital to Barnsley on October 27 in the hope of seeing a kid he had groomed over the internet.
Instead, he was apprehended by officers from the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU), with whom he had been cooperating throughout an undercover investigation.
At a hearing in November last year, Makalanda pled guilty to four charges, including meeting a minor after grooming, sexual communication with a child, organising the sexual exploitation of a child, and violating a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He was already on a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order, according to the court, after being convicted of producing and having indecent photos of minors in 2010.
Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Howard said after the sentencing: “Makalanda was already a Registered Sex Offender and his actions in grooming and arranging to meet a child in order to carry out abuse show how much of a danger he is to children.”
“I’m pleased that the sentence he has received reflects this. The Yorkshire and Humber ROCU will not stop in its efforts to bring the predators like him to justice.”
