Readers are warned that this article contains details of sexual crimes that some may find upsetting.
A Perth man thought to be Australia’s worst cyber predator has been jailed for almost two decades for crimes a judge described as “abhorrent”, “cruel” and “humiliating”.
Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, 29, was today sentenced to 17 years in jail for sexually blackmailing hundreds of young women across the world.
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From the comfort of his bedroom, the Perth engineer preyed on 286 young victims from 20 countries.
He posed as a 15-year-old YouTube star to lure them into his perverted trap then persistently blackmailed them to perform sex acts on camera.
The sextortion spree spanned 11 months from late 2018. Much of it is too disturbing to report.
The victims were mostly teens and the youngest was just 10.
Some were abused in front of a live audience of other paedophiles.
The girls often begged and cried, threatening self-harm in some cases, but none of that deterred Rasheed.
If they complied it only fed further blackmail as the demands became more perverse.
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A court was told his diagnosis – coercive sexual sadism disorder – meant the 29-year-old got pleasure from his victims’ suffering.
So prolific were Rasheed’s crimes, it took almost three days to sentence him in the WA District Court.
Judge Amanda Burrows said there were no cases to compare it to in Australia, describing his conduct as “abhorrent”, “cruel” and “humiliating” with “devastating lifelong consequences” for his victims.
Rasheed will be up for parole in 2033.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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