Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed pleaded guilty to 119 charges involving 286 people from 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and France, and was sentenced to 17 years in prison, the BBC reported.
Two-thirds of his victims were girls under the age of 16.
A court in the Australian city of Perth heard that the 29-year-old forced the girls to engage in increasingly extreme and violent acts by threatening to send obscene messages and photos to their loved ones.
Australian authorities say it is “one of the worst cases of its kind” in history.
“This man’s reckless disregard for his victims around the world, their suffering, humiliation and fear, makes this one of the worst sex assault cases ever to be dealt with in Australia,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean said.
“This type of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and causes lifelong trauma,” he added.
Australian judge Amanda Burrows said the scale of the man’s crime was “unprecedented in the country”.
Posing as a 15-year-old American internet star, Rasheed would strike up a conversation with his targets before engaging the victims in discussions about sexual fantasies.
He threatened to send the victims’ answers to friends and family if they did not perform a series of “humiliating” sexual acts, which sometimes involved the family’s pets and other children.
Mr Rasheed was involved in misogynistic incel communities online and had repeatedly invited other people – in one case as many as 98 – to watch the torture live streamed.
Many of the abused children told him they were suicidal, and one even sent images of self-harm. But Mr Rasheed continued to blackmail them despite their “obvious distress” and “tremendous fear”, the judge in the case said.
He was caught after Australian authorities were approached by Interpol and US investigators and charged in 2020 following a police raid on his home.
Mr Rasheed is already serving a five-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl twice in his car in a Perth park.
The court was also told he is participating in a sex offender treatment program, but the man still poses a high risk of re-offending. He will be eligible for parole in 2033. in August
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2024-08-28 23:42:01