Pakistani-origin man jailed for 17 years in Australia's 'worst sexual abuse' case

An Australian court has sentenced a Pakistani-origin man to 17 years in prison for impersonating a social media influencer and forcing hundreds of girls worldwide into performing sexual acts.

The 29-year-old accused, Muhammad Zain-ul-Abideen Rasheed, blackmailed 286 people from 20 countries including the UK, US, Japan and France and pleaded guilty to 119 charges of sextortion.

As per reports, the court in Perth was told that most of Zain's victims were under 16 years of age.

Australian authorities said that it is one of the worst cases of sexual blackmail in the country's history.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), posing as a 15-year-old American internet star, Rasheed would initiate conversations with his targets and then ask them about their sexual desires.

He would then threaten to send the explicit messages to their families unless they recorded the humiliating sexual acts on camera. These victims were often forced to perform these acts with family pets or other children in the household.

When handing down the sentence on August 27, Judge Amanda Burrows said Rasheed's crime was of such a magnitude that it was “incomparable” to any other case in the country.

The court was told that Rasheed was part of online 'incel' communities and invited other people on several occasions. In one instance, he live-streamed the abuse to an audience of approximately 98 people.

The children he was blackmailing told him they had suicidal thoughts but Rasheed ignored their ordeal.

He was arrested in 2021 following a police raid on his home. Australian Federal Police had contacted Interpol and US authorities to apprehend him.

The accused is already serving five years in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy twice in his car at a park in Perth.

He came to Australia from Pakistan at a young age and his parents were traditional and conservative, according to local media.

Rasheed was sent to an all-boys private school where he and his brother were the only Muslim students, causing them to become socially isolated.

As per the report, he began accessing child exploitation material in 2018, which turned into outright child abuse in 2019.

The court was told Rasheed had been in a sex offender treatment program but a psychologist said Rasheed was a high risk to reoffend. He will be eligible to apply for parole in August 2033.