Rasheed posed as a well-known teenager on social media to lure his victims.
A 29-year-old Australian man has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for one of many worst sextortion circumstances within the nation’s historical past. Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed blackmailed a whole bunch of ladies on-line, lots of whom had been minors, into performing specific acts, reported BBC.
Rasheed posed as a well-known teenager on social media to lure his victims. He would construct belief with them earlier than blackmailing them with threats of exposing their personal info. Regardless of his victims’ misery and pleas for assist, Rasheed continued his dangerous actions.
Rasheed manipulated over 250 victims across the globe into performing specific acts on digital camera.
The Australian Federal Police and the Western Australia Joint Anti-Little one Exploitation Workforce performed a joint investigation that led to Rasheed’s arrest.
“The callous disregard this man had for his victims world wide and their misery, humiliation and concern make it one of the crucial horrific sextortion circumstances prosecuted in Australia,” mentioned Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean.
When saying the sentence on Tuesday, Decide Amanda Burrows mentioned Rasheed’s offence was of such magnitude there was “no comparable case” within the nation, in response to the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC).
Rasheed pretended to be a 15-year-old American web star. He would begin the dialog together with his targets, and later contain them in discussions about sexual fantasies.
Rasheed threatened the victims to ship their responses to family and friends until they carried out a collection of escalating “degrading” intercourse acts- which at instances included household pets and different youngsters of their house, the BBC reported.
The Western Australia Joint Anti-Little one Exploitation Workforce (WA JACET) first launched an investigation into Rasheed’s actions in September 2019.
A number of youngsters informed him they had been suicidal- one occasion despatched photos of self-harm. However he continued to blackmail them regardless of their “apparent misery” and “excessive concern”, the decide mentioned.
He has been convicted of a number of fees, together with sexual assault. He will probably be eligible to petition for parole in August 2033.