A young man who promised girls, as young as 14, weed, vapes, acid and money in return for sexual favours on social media — some while he was on bail for the same type offences — has been sentenced.
Hesham Mahbub, 23, was handed five years and three months after admitting to a laundry list of offences, including child luring and death threats, among others, against vulnerable teenagers.
In some cases, he followed through and sexually assaulted the girls.
When he didn’t get what he wanted from the females, he made threats to their lives, in one case resulting in an Aurora high school going into lockdown, involving threats against a girl and images of a gun being posted to social media, according to court documents
On March 23, 2022, he contacted a 14-year-old girl on Instagram and asked if she wanted to do acid with him.
When she replied she was “groundedâ€, he persisted, offering her $50 for oral sex, to which she replied “stop.â€
Then he offered $100 and she didn’t respond.
He kept asking and, according to court documents, the girl at one point responded: “You know I’m a kid, right? Ur just a horny 19-year-old boy who can’t get girls his own age, so he preys on kids with addictions.â€
Months later, when they continued to communicate, now on Snapchat, the girl eventually promised to meet, agreeing to perform oral sex on Mahbub in return for a vape pen. She grew nervous upon meeting Mahbub and refused to enter his vehicle.
Following this incident, he was charged and then granted bail under conditions to stay away from children.
On March 23, 2023, he began communicating with one teen who originally told Mahbub she was 16, but later admitted she was 15. Mahbub picked her up at her Aurora high school and drove to a secluded area where the pair made out and took a picture of his hand on her breast.
During this time, Mahbub was on conditions not to speak to or be in the presence of anyone under 16.
Mahbub wanted to go further, but the girl refused, court documents reveal.
He would proceed to send death threats and photographs of him holding a gun, which was in fact a BB gun, and also a photo of a hand holding a bullet stating it had one of the girls’ names on it.
His actions prompted the school to go into lockdown.
The judge said Mahbub’s behaviour struck at the core of Canadians’ beliefs.
“He threatened to shoot a child,†Justice Amit Ghosh told the court. “The photographs he sent of the handgun and bullet support that he was able to carry out his threat. Such threats strike at the heart of Canadian values and jar and disrupt our collective sense of safety and security in schools.â€
He also pointed out how, while kissing and touching the breast of the 15-year-old may not fall at the serious end of the spectrum, he “reminded himself†how detrimental it might have been to the youth.
“Any sexual contact with a child is both inherently violent and harmful,†he added. “The degree of intrusion does not necessarily correlate to the degree of harm to the child.â€
While there were many aggravating circumstances, including the age of one victim (14), Mahbub’s persistence, that he attempted to procure a child for sexual service and his behaviour with other minors while on bail, the judge also mentioned some of the mitigating factors, including Mahbub’s guilty plea, the fact he was sexually assaulted as a child, he’s been gainfully employed at a pizzeria and was enrolled in university.
His lawyer, Nader Fakih, said he also lost his father at a young age and he was sexually assaulted during much of his youth by educational tutors.
“He’s a lot more than these charges as a human being … clients can be painted as the sum of their worst actions,†he told Metroland, “but it’s a lot more complicated than that. He loves his mother, for example, his face lights up when he sees her, that’s the human element I saw that readers would not see.â€
In all, Mahbub received three years for child luring, 18 months for sexual assault, nine months for uttering threats, all consecutive, and three months for failure to comply, concurrent.
He will also receive a DNA order, weapons prohibition, be added to the sexual registry for 20 years and banned from public parks, working with children under 16 and is not to access social media sites including Twitter, Tinder, Bumble, Snapchat and Instagram.
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