A sex predator posing as a famous YouTube teenager who blackmailed hundreds of girls around the world into performing sexual acts on camera has been jailed for 17 years in Australia.
Mohammed Zain Ul Abidin Rashid pleaded guilty to 119 charges involving 286 people from 20 countries, including the UK, US, Japan and France. Two-thirds of his victims were under the age of 16.
A Perth court heard the 29-year-old forced them into a cycle of increasingly extreme abuse, threatening to send compromising messages and photos to their loved ones.
Australian authorities say it is "one of the worst cases of sexual extortion" in history.
"The callous disregard this man has shown for his victims around the world, as well as for their suffering, humiliation and fear, makes this one of the most horrific sex harassment cases investigated in Australia," said Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean.
"This type of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and causes lifelong trauma."
Sentencing, Judge Amanda Burrows said Rasheed's crime was of such a scale that there was "no other case like it" in the country.
Posing as a 15-year-old American internet star, Rashid struck up a conversation with his targets, then engaged them in a discussion of sexual fantasies.
He threatens them with sending their answers to friends and relatives if they don't perform a series of escalating, "humiliating" sexual acts that sometimes involve family pets and other children in their home.
Many of those blackmailed told him they were suicidal - one of them even sent pictures of self-harm. But Rashid continued to blackmail them despite their "obvious distress" and "extreme fear", the judge said.
He was captured after Australian authorities contacted Interpol and US investigators, and was charged in 2020 following a police raid on his home.
Rashid is already serving a five-year jail sentence for twice sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in his car in a Perth park. I BGNES
