This dramatic footage captures the moment a child rapist was caught just minutes before he would have fled the country.
Police pulled Diiriye Ali-Jamac, 34, from a flight to Ethiopia, moments before the plane was due to take off from Heathrow.
He has since been sentenced to six years in prison for having sex with a 14-year-old girl.
Bodycam footage shows a Heathrow police officer entering the plane and approaching the stunned 34-year-old.
Calmly asking to Ali-Jamac’s passport, the officer then escorts the would-be fugitive off the flight, less than 30 minutes before it was due to leave.
Back in the airport terminal, PC Williams tells him: “We have been given information by Surrey Police that you are currently shown as wanted.”
When the suspect protests “for what?”, the officer responds: “In connection with a rape of a 14-year-old girl, child abduction, human trafficking and grooming.”
Ali-Jamac, of Feltham, Middlesex, was subsequently jailed for six years after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a child.
Surrey Police said the investigation was launched after the victim was reported missing by her mother on 28 April. She was found by officers at Hounslow train station the following day.
The girl told officers she had arranged to meet the man – who she knew only as ‘Diddie’ – on WhatsApp. He then took her to a hotel and had sex with her.
The force said they were able to identify the hotel from a “selfie” the victim had taken on her phone.
“The suspect had paid cash, and given a fake name, so we trawled through the CCTV footage from around the hotel until we found footage of the car he’d used,” Surrey Police said.
The first clue came from her mobile phone. She’d taken a “selfie” early on the Monday morning, and an officer was able to identify the hotel based on the background of the selfie. ?
— Surrey Police (@SurreyPolice)
In a series of tweets, the force explained how they captured the child sex offender.
Once they identified Ali-Jamac, they registered him as “wanted”, placing a marker on national police network.
“Within three hours the marker had a hit,” they wrote, adding: “‘Diddie had bought a one way ticket and boarded a plane to Ethiopia.
“We quickly informed @MPSHeathrow who kindly went and got him off the plane (less than 30 minutes before the plane was due to take off).”
Ali-Jamac was then charged and remanded in custody before he was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on August 19
This #Thread from @surreypolice shows police working together to arrest a man moments before a flight was due to leave the UK @MPSHeathrow
He has since been convicted for three counts of sexual activity with a child. #Teamwork ? https://t.co/aiQwVBbqJV
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk)
Detective Constable Sally Michail from North Surrey’s Child Exploitation and Missing Unit, said: ‘I would like to commend the victim for her bravery in speaking out against Ali-Jamac and having to re-live the horrendous ordeal she had suffered at his hands all over again when she provided her statement.
“She was completely taken in by this man, who was 20 years her senior and someone she thought she could trust.
“As soon as he became aware that police were on his trail, he tried to leave the country but fortunately we intercepted him as he boarded his flight.
“I would like to thank the team who worked on this investigation for the sensitive and professional way they dealt with the victim to gain her trust so that she felt supported in giving her evidence, and for their relentless pursuit of Ali-Jamac, with officers working a 28 hour shift, including trawling through CCTV footage from the hotel, to ensure that he was identified as quickly as possible.”
Dramatic moment police arrest fleeing child rapist as plane prepares to take off at Heathrow
Great news. UK police doing their job at last.