Australian behind one of worst sextortion cases in history

A man has been jailed in what’s been described as one of the worst sextortion cases in history after he posed as a teenage social media celebrity to coerce more than 250 victims – including 180 children – to perform sexually explicit acts on camera.

Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, 29, from Perth has been sentenced to 17 years in jail over the sextortion of 286 victims.

He was sentenced in the Perth District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 119 charges in December last year.

The charges stemmed from more than 550 incidents over a period of 11 months.

A further three charges that captured 108 incidents of behaviour was also considered by the judge when handing down the sentence.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner David McLean described the case as one of the worst sextortion cases in history.

The AFP worked with United States Homeland Security Investigations and Interpol to investigate reports that an Australian man was sextorting girls through social media.

AFP officers in WA worked with police in multiple countries to identify victims and check on their welfare.

The Western Australia Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (WA JACET), with officers from the AFP and the WA Police launched an investigation in September 2019.

WA JACET discovered Rasheed used multiple social media accounts to target victims.

Rasheed would contact young females who had visible friend lists on social media and tried to befriend them before manipulating them into providing him with explicit content.

He would then blackmail them into providing increasingly sexual and degrading videos and threatened to send earlier explicit content to their family and friends.

A Canadian victim told police she was 13 years old when someone she thought was a 15-year-old social media celebrity contacted her online.

But it was Rasheed, who asked her sexually explicit questions before sending edited screen shots of the conversation that depicted the victim liking his sexual fantasies.

Rasheed then threatened to send the doctored images to her friends and family unless she complied with his demands for sexually explicit videos.

On occasions, he forced victims to perform sexual acts on camera, in one instance it was viewed by almost 100 other people.

He also talked to other child sex offenders online, swapping sextortion strategies and the details of children who were susceptible to blackmail and abuse.

The AFP first charged Rasheed when he was aged 25, in September 2020 and laid further charges in 2021.

Since September 2019, the AFP and Commonwealth prosecutors have reviewed the man’s stored online chat records, videos and photographs.

AFP investigators liaised with international law enforcement partners to identify the victims and scale of the sexual exploitation and abuse.

As multiple young women were targeted at the same time, police had to separate thousands of jumbled text conversations from the social media accounts to ensure all the offences were identified.

AFP assistant commissioner McLean said the Rasheed’s abhorrent actions and callous disregard for his victims’ obvious distress, humiliation and fear made it one of the most horrific sextortion cases prosecuted in Australia.

“This type of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and causes lifelong trauma,” he said.

“The predator, through his facade of being a social media celebrity, manipulated and exploited 286 children and young adults for his own sadistic pleasure.

“Most of these victims were in their own homes, a place where they should feel safe.

“Sextortion can escalate in a matter of minutes.

“We encourage parents and carers to speak to their children regularly about their online activities, so they feel comfortable about asking for help if needed.

“We also want to remind people to never share personal information with people they have only met online.”

Homeland Security Investigations attache Ernest Verina said HSI was steadfast in its mission to safeguard victims of child exploitation.

“HSI will always stand with Australia on a global scale to hold accountable those who commit these heinous crimes against our children,” he said

The man exploited and abused victims from 20 countries including Australia, the US, the UK, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Guam, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Panama, South Africa, Spain and Netherlands.