Rashid lured his victims by posing as a well-known teenager on social media.
A 29-year-old Australian man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for one of the worst sexual extortion cases in Australian history. According to a BBC report, Mohammed Zain-ul-Abidin Rasheed is accused of blackmailing hundreds of girls, including minors, online and forcing them into performing obscene acts.
“Rashid would lure his victims by posing as a popular teenager on social media. After building trust with them, he would blackmail them by threatening to expose their personal information. Despite the victims' distress and pleas for help, Rashid continued his harmful behavior.”
Rashid allegedly manipulated more than 250 victims around the world into performing explicit acts on camera.
A joint investigation by the Australian Federal Police and the Western Australian Joint Child Exploitation Team led to Rasheed's arrest.
“The callous disregard this man showed for his victims around the world, and the distress, humiliation and terror he caused them, makes this one of the most horrific sex extortion cases prosecuted in Australia,” Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner David McLean said.
Judge Amanda Burrows, handing down the sentence on Tuesday, said Rasheed's crimes were so serious that there was “no case comparable” in the country, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Rasheed posed as a 15-year-old American internet star and struck up conversations with his targets, then engaged them in discussions about their sexual fantasies.
The BBC reports that Rasheed threatened to send messages to his victims' friends and family unless they performed a series of increasingly “humiliating” sexual acts, sometimes involving pets or other children.
The Western Australian Joint Child Exploitation Team (WA JACET) first began investigating Rasheed's activities in September 2019.
Several children told him they had suicidal thoughts and, in one incident, sent images of self-harm, but he continued to make threats despite their “obvious distress” and “extreme fear”, the judge said.
He was convicted of multiple charges, including sexual assault, and will be eligible to apply for parole in August 2033.
