8 months ago
209
MELBOURNE: A
Pakistani-origin man
has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for over one of the worst online
child sexual abuse
schemes in Australia, targeting hundreds of victims in the country and overseas by pretending to be a 15-year-old social media influencer with a large following.
Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed
, 29, pleaded guilty to 119 charges, relating to 286 people from 20 countries, including the UK, US, Japan and France.
Two-thirds of his victims were aged under 16, BBC News reported.
A Perth court heard Rasheed coerced them into a cycle of extreme abuse by threatening to send explicit images of them to their loved ones. He pretended to be a
YouTube star
and blackmailed children into performing sexual acts including those involving pets or other young siblings.
Judge Amanda Burrows said there was "no comparable case ... I can find in Australia", adding that Rasheed's offending was aggravated by the fact he abused victims with groups of other adults, inviting paedophiles to watch live streams of kids performing the acts.
Rasheed is already serving a five-year term for separate crime in which he sexually abused a minor in his car on two occasions. ap
English (US)