Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, a predator posing as a famous teenage YouTuber, was sentenced to 17 years in Australian jail this week for blackmailing over 286 girls around the globe into performing sex acts on camera.
According to a report by UK-broadcaster BBC, Rasheed pleaded guilty to 119 charges. At least two-third of his victims were aged under 16 and came from countries like the UK, the US, Japan and France.
A court in Perth gave the verdict after hearing from prosecutors that the 29-year-old coerced his victims into a cycle of extreme abuse by threatening to send their explicit images to their loved ones.
Australian police told the court that it is “one of the worst sextortion cases” in history.
“The callous disregard this man had for his victims around the world and their distress, humiliation and fear make it one of the most horrific sextortion cases prosecuted in Australia. This type of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and causes lifelong trauma,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean was quoted as saying by the broadcaster.
Judge Amandra Burrows, who presided over the hearings, said the crimes committed by Rasheed was of such magnitude there was “no comparable case” in the country, according to a separate report by Australian broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Rasheed’s modus operandi was to pretend to be a 15-year-old American internet star who would strike a conversation with his targets and slowly involve them in discussions about sexual fantasies.
He then used the texts his victims sent him to threaten them into performing “degrading” sex acts which also involved family pets and other children present in the homes of the victims.
He had invited other people – in one case as many as 98 – to watch these acts on a livestream. Rasheed was involved in misogynistic “incel” communities online as well.
He was already serving a five-year prison term for sexually abusing a 14-year-old twice in his car at a Perth park. After Australian authorities were contacted by Interpol and US investigators, he was arrested in 2020 following a raid in his home.
Rasheed, even though was engaged in a sex offenders treatment programme, authorities said he still represented a high risk of reoffending. He will be eligible to apply for parole in August 2033.
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