![\"Sky](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A “predator” who posed as a teen social media star has been jailed for coercing hundreds of victims into degrading sex acts “in one of the worst sextortion cases in history”.<\/p>\n
Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed pleaded guilty to 119 charges stemming from 550 incidents, in what police said was “one of the most horrific sextortion cases prosecuted in Australia”.<\/p>\n
His 286 victims – who he exploited for his “sadistic pleasure” – were from 20 countries, including the UK. Almost two-thirds (180 victims) were children.<\/p>\n
Rasheed, from Perth, Australia, reportedly claimed to be a YouTube star and police said he coerced his victims into providing “increasingly sexual and degrading videos”.<\/p>\n
On several occasions, he invited other people – in one case as many 98 people – to watch the distressing acts on a livestream.<\/p>\n
He did this by threatening to send explicit messages and images of victims to their loved ones.<\/p>\n
One Canada-based victim told police she was just 13 when someone she thought was a 15-year-old social media celebrity contacted her online.<\/p>\n
Instead, Rasheed asked her a series of sexually explicit questions before sending edited screenshots of the conversation that depicted the victim liking his sexual fantasies.<\/p>\n
He then threatened to send these doctored images to her friends and family unless she complied with his demands.<\/p>\n
Rasheed also communicated online with other child sex abusers, swapping sextortion strategies, as well as details of children who were susceptible to blackmail and abuse.<\/p>\n
Victims were from the UK, the US, Australia, Ireland, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Namibia, North Macedonia, Panama, South Africa, Brazil, Israel and Guam.<\/p>\n
Rasheed was charged in 2020 after collaboration between authorities in Australia and the US and Interpol.<\/p>\n
He was sentenced to 17 years in jail and will be eligible to apply to parole in 2033.<\/p>\n
The Australian Federal Police said the “scale of the predatory and exploitative offending by the offender made it one of the worst sextortion cases in history”.<\/p>\n
The force’s assistant commissioner David McLean said: “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.<\/p>\n
“This type of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and causes lifelong trauma.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Source: \u00a0<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"