Man posing as YouTube star jailed for global extortion

Warning: This story contains details that readers may find disturbing

A sex offender who posed as a famous teen YouTuber and blackmailed hundreds of girls around the world into performing sex acts on camera has been sentenced to 17 years in prison in Australia.

Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed 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 vicious cycle of increasingly extreme abuse by threatening to send explicit messages and pictures of them to their relatives.

Australian authorities call it “one of the worst cases of sextortion” in history.

“The callous disregard this man showed to his victims around the world and their suffering, humiliation and fear make this case one of the most horrific sextortion cases ever tried in Australia,” said Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean.

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

In handing down the verdict on Tuesday, Judge Amanda Burrows said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), that Rasheed's offence was of such magnitude that there was “no comparable case” in the country.

Rasheed posed as a 15-year-old American internet star and struck up a conversation with his victims before engaging them in discussions about sexual fantasies.

He threatened to share their answers with friends and family unless they engaged in a series of escalating, “degrading” sexual acts – sometimes involving pets and other children in the family home.

The court heard that Rasheed was active in misogynistic “incel” communities online and had on several occasions invited other people – in one case as many as 98 – to watch the disturbing acts on a live stream.

Many of the blackmailed children told him they were suicidal – one even sent pictures of self-harm. But Rasheed continued his blackmail despite their “obvious distress” and “extreme fear,” the judge said, according to ABC.

He was caught after Australian authorities were contacted by Interpol and US investigators and was charged in 2020 following a police raid on his home.

Rasheed is already serving a five-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl twice in his car in a Perth park.

The court heard he attended a sex offender treatment program, but Rasheed was still at high risk of re-offending. He will be eligible to apply for parole in August 2033.