Jailed: Hegoda Makalanda
(Picture: West Yorkshire Police)A London sex offender who travelled to Yorkshire in an attempt to sexually abuse a child has been jailed.
Hegoda Makalanda, 45, from Enfield, was jailed for nine years on Friday at Sheffield Crown Court after being caught in a covert police operation.
He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely and given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The court heard how Makalanda travelled from the capital to Barnsley on October 27 where he believed he would be meeting a child he had groomed on the internet.
Instead he was arrested by detectives from the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) who he had been engaging with as they carried out a covert investigation.
Makalanda had pleaded guilty to four offences, including meeting a child following grooming, sexual communication with a child, arranging the sexual exploitation of a child, and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, at a hearing in November last year.
The court heard he was already on a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order after being convicted of making and possessing indecent images of children dating back to 2010.
Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Howard said: “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.”
