Man posing as YouTube star jailed for global sextortion

Warning: This story contains details readers might find distressing

A predator posing as a famous teenage YouTuber who blackmailed hundreds of girls around the globe into performing sex acts on camera has been jailed for 17 years in Australia.

Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed pleaded guilty to 119 charges, relating to 286 people from 20 countries, including the UK, the US, Japan and France. Two-thirds of his victims were aged under 16.

A Perth court heard the 29-year-old coerced them into a cycle of increasingly extreme abuse by threatening to send explicit messages and images of them to their loved ones.

Australian authorities say it is "one of the worst sextortion cases" in history.

"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," said Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean.

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

When handing down her sentence on Tuesday, Judge Amanda Burrows said Rasheed's offence was of such magnitude there was "no comparable case" in the country, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Pretending to be a 15-year-old American internet star, Rasheed would strike up a conversation with his targets, before involving them in discussions about sexual fantasies.

He threatened to send their responses to friends and family unless they performed a series of escalating, "degrading" sex acts – which at times included family pets and other children in their home.

The court heard Rasheed had been involved in misogynistic "incel" communities online, and on several occasions had invited other people - in one case as many as 98 - to watch the distressing acts on a livestream.

Many of the children being extorted told him they were suicidal - one even sent images of self-harm. But Rasheed continued his blackmail despite their "obvious distress" and "extreme fear", the judge said, according to the ABC.

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

Rasheed is already serving a five-year prison term for sexually abusing a 14-year-old twice in his car at a Perth park.

The court heard he was engaged in a sex offenders treatment programme but Rasheed still represented a high risk of reoffending. He will be eligible to apply for parole in August 2033.