Ex-Obama policy adviser sentenced to prison for flying to UK to rape a child

Rahamim Shy, a former senior adviser in the Obama administration, was convicted and sentenced to prison Wednesday for traveling to Britain to rape a 9-year-old girl and for possessing "indecent photos of a child."

The U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service indicated that Shy, a New Jersey investment banker who served as a senior adviser in former President Barack Obama's Treasury Department, traveled from New York to Bedfordshire, England, in February 2024, after a month of scheming to meet a schoolgirl with "cuddly toys and condoms" in his luggage.

Prosecutor Lorraine Telford stated, "Rahamim Shy is a predator who was fully prepared to commit unspeakable acts against a child for his own sexual gratification."

"It was clear from his explicit conversations and items he brought to England that he had only one intention, to commit rape against what he knew was a vulnerable child," added Telford.

'Shy will no longer pose an immediate threat.'

The pedophile connected with a woman on an online forum as well as on messaging apps who he was led to believe was the grandmother of a young girl. According to the CPS, Shy told the supposed grandmother, who went by "Debbie," in "acute detail the disturbing acts he wanted to do to the girl and that he was fully prepared to travel to England to do so."

In his online communications, Shy suggested it was a "tad late" for his intended victim to start sexual activity and indicated it would be an "honor" for him to become "her first."

What Shy didn't know at the time was that the 9-year-old girl didn't exist and her supposed grandmother was actually an invention of the Bedfordshire Police, reported the Telegraph.

Shy flew to Gatwick Airport on Feb. 23, 2024, then drove to Bedford where he discovered "Debbie" was an undercover cop.

In addition to finding items on his person that "demonstrated a clear intent to win the child over before abusing her," arresting officers also found "indecent images of children" on Shy's phone as well as messages to other people expressing an interest in molesting children.

The pedophile's defense argued that since he was in the U.S. at the time that he was plotting to rape a child, he was jurisdictionally exempt from prosecution. The Luton Crown Court did not buy what Shy's lawyers were selling.

Shy was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison.

"The fact the child in this case did not exist makes no difference, and it is a credit to the police operation and subsequent prosecution that Shy will no longer pose an immediate threat," said Telford.

In addition to working in the Obama Treasury Department from 2008 to 2014 — at one point getting deployed to Afghanistan to advise the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force — the Daily Mail reported that Shy worked under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and provided strategic policy analysis to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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