A 29-year-old man from Perth in Australia has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for sextortion involving 286 victims, including 180 children, from 20 countries.
The Perth district court delivered the sentence on 27 August.
The offender, Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, who posed as a teenage social media celebrity, coerced victims into performing sexually explicit acts on camera.
He admitted guilt in December 2023 to 119 charges related to over 550 incidents across 11 months. The court also factored in three additional charges covering 108 incidents.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) assistant commissioner David McLean described the case as one of the worst sextortion cases in history. The AFP collaborated with US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Interpol to investigate the man, who targeted victims using multiple social media accounts. He blackmailed them into producing explicit content by threatening to share previous material with their friends and family.
One victim from Canada was threatened with doctored images and pressured into providing further explicit content. The AFP first charged the man in September 2020, with additional charges laid in 2021.
The investigation involved reviewing extensive online communications and working with international authorities to support and identify victims.
The man received a non-parole period of nine years.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event