A 31-year-old London man, Sooraj Chellapah, was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on 22 May 2026 to 10 years' imprisonment after pleading guilty in February to 21 offences involving the online sexual exploitation of children. Over a three-month period between August and October 2025, Chellapah communicated with multiple child victims, sending sexual messages, inciting them to engage in sexual activity, coercing some into producing sexual images and videos, and attempting to arrange face-to-face meetings to carry out further abuse. Metropolitan Police intercepted and arrested him on 17 October 2025 as he arrived at a planned meeting with a child; a subsequent search of his home uncovered digital devices containing a significant volume of indecent images and videos of children, some involving very young victims.
Chellapah's three-month campaign—sexual messages, incitement, coercion for image production, escalation to attempted physical contact—could have been intercepted before it reached multiple victims. Guardii's anti-grooming detection module monitors children's direct messages in real time across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms, identifying grooming patterns including sexual language escalation, meeting solicitation and image requests. A Meta Business Partner backed by Startmate, Guardii blocks or flags hostile contact before it reaches the target, surfaces a child in crisis to a parent, school or professional, and preserves evidence for rapid escalation to law enforcement. Real-time automated detection closes the operational window that enabled Chellapah's prolific offending across dozens of children, addressing the precise threat vector he exploited: sustained, multi-victim online grooming that progresses from digital abuse to contact offending.
