WARNING: This story contains details that readers may find distressing
A predator who impersonated a famous teenage YouTuber and blackmailed hundreds of girls around the world into performing sex acts on camera has been jailed for 17 years in Australia.
Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed admitted 119 charges involving 286 people from 20 countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and France. Two-thirds of the victims are under 16 years old.
A Perth court heard the 29-year-old threatened to send explicit messages and photos to loved ones, forcing them into an increasingly extreme cycle of abuse.
Australian authorities called this “one of the most serious sex extortion cases in history.”
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean said: “This man’s callous disregard for his victims around the world, and their pain, humiliation and fear, makes it the most horrific case of sextortion ever prosecuted in Australia. one.
“This type of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and can cause lifelong trauma.”
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Judge Amanda Burrows said when handing down the sentence on Tuesday that Rashid’s crimes were so serious that there was “no similar case” in the country.
Rasheed pretended to be a 15-year-old American internet star, initiated conversations with his targets, and then engaged them in discussions about their sexual fantasies.
He threatened to send their responses to friends and family unless they engaged in an escalating series of “degrading” sexual acts – sometimes involving the family pet and other children in the home.
The court heard that Rashid had been involved in the misogynist online community “Non-Singles” and had repeatedly invited others – including 98 people on one occasion – to watch live broadcasts of the distressing behaviour.
Many of the children who were blackmailed told him they were suicidal, and one even sent photos of self-mutilation. The judge said Rashid continued the extortion despite their “obvious distress” and “extreme fear,” ABC reported.
He was captured after Interpol and US investigators contacted Australian authorities and charged following a police raid on his home in 2020.
Rashid is currently serving a five-year sentence for twice sexually abusing a 14-year-old child in a Perth park.
The court heard he was attending a sex offender treatment program but Rashid remained at high risk of re-offending. He will be eligible for parole in August 2033.
