NEWS – Man sentenced to 17 years in prison for sextortion

(AGENPARL) – Roma, August 29, 2024

(AGENPARL) – Thursday, August 29, 2024 Man sentenced to 17 years in prison for sextortion
A man sent to Australia by INTERPOL and US Homeland Security Investigations has been sentenced to 17 years in prison after sexting 286 victims – more than half of whom were children – in 20 countries.
Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, 29, posed as a teenage social media star and manipulated young girls into posting explicit content.
He then threatened to send the images to family and friends if the victims did not come forward with increasingly sexual and degrading images.
Some victims were also forced to perform sexual acts on camera for themselves and other unknown persons, in one case up to 98 other persons. He also exchanged sextortion strategies, as well as details of children who were vulnerable to blackmail and abuse, with other child abusers.
NOTE: More information about INTERPOL’s work to identify and rescue victims of online child sexual abuse is available on our website https://www.interpol.int/Crimes/Crimes-against-children/Our-response-to-crimes-against-children
This includes data from INTERPOL’s global database on child sexual exploitation, which contains over 4.9 million images and videos and has helped identify over 41,800 victims worldwide. On average, the database helps identify around 14 victims per day.
Australian Federal Police press release – https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/wa-man-jailed-sextortion-286-victims
Excerpt below
Western Australian man jailed for sextortion of 286 victims
A Perth man who forced 286 victims – including 180 children – from 20 different countries to perform sexually explicit acts on camera or video has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.
The 29-year-old man who posed as a teenage social media celebrity to lure children and young adults online was sentenced in Perth District Court today (27 August 2024) after pleading guilty in December 2023 to 119 charges relating to more than 550 incidents over 11 months.
In determining the sentence, the judge also took into account three other charges, representing 108 behavioral incidents.
According to AFP Assistant Commissioner David McLean, the scale of the predatory and exploitative crimes committed by the perpetrators makes it one of the worst cases of sextortion in history.
The AFP worked closely with the United States’ Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Interpol to investigate initial reports of an Australian man sexually abusing girls via social media.
During the investigation, AFP officers in Western Australia worked with police in several countries through the AFP’s international network to identify victims and check on their welfare.
The Western Australia Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (WA JACET), which is made up of AFP and the Western Australia Police Force (WAPF), launched an investigation in September 2019 and discovered the man was using multiple social media accounts to target victims.
He contacted young women whose accounts had visible friends lists and attempted to befriend them, before manipulating them into providing explicit content. He then blackmailed them into providing increasingly sexual and degrading videos by threatening to send previous explicit content to their family and friends.
A victim from Canada told police she was just 13 when someone she thought was a 15-year-old social media celebrity contacted her online. Instead, it was the Perth man, who asked her a series of sexually explicit questions before sending doctored screenshots of the conversation that showed the victim entertaining his sexual fantasies.
The perpetrator then threatened to send the edited images to her friends and family if she did not comply with his demands for sexually explicit videos.
In some cases, the man forced victims to perform sexual acts on camera, for himself and other strangers to watch. In one case, 98 other people could watch. He also conversed online with other child abusers, sharing sextortion strategies and providing details about children who were vulnerable to blackmail and abuse. (….)
The man exploited and abused victims from 20 countries: Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Guam, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Panama, South Africa, Spain and the Netherlands.
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