Pak-Origin Man Sentenced To Jail For 'One Of The Worst Online Child Sex Abuse Schemes’
Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, a 29-year-old Pakistani-origin man, has been sentenced to 17 years in jail. He was allegedly charged for one of the worst online child sexual abuse schemes in Australia. As per media reports, he targeted hundreds of victims in the country and overseas by pretending to be a 15-year-old social media influencer with a large following.
Rasheed pleaded guilty to 119 charges, relating to 286 people from 20 countries, including the UK, US, Japan and France. According to BBC, two-third of the man’s victims were aged under 16.
A Perth court observed that Rasheed coerced the victims 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, while handing down her sentence in the District Court, said there was “no comparable case … I can find in Australia”. She added that Rasheed’s offending was aggravated by the fact that he abused victims with groups of other adults, inviting paedophiles to watch live streams of kids performing the acts.
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The man approached children online in guise of online star, and asked them unobjectionable questions to gain their trust. Then he asked the victims for pictures that he could “rate” and later threatened to send screenshots of their responses to friends and family unless they performed increasingly extreme sexual acts – including those involving family pets and other young siblings or children in the home.
Burrow said the offences were “of a degrading, humiliating nature [and] the conduct involving a family pet was particularly abhorrent”.
As per the report, the court heard that Rasheed would set a “countdown” timer, threatening to distribute the responses and further images he had made of them if they didn’t comply with his demands.
There were also cases in which Rasheed continued to bully and coerce the children despite their “obvious distress” and “extreme fear”, with some telling him they were suicidal.
“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…This type of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and causes lifelong trauma”, said Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean.
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Rasheed is already serving a five-year term for separate crime in which he sexually abused a minor in his car on two occasions. The Judge noted that he committed the said crimes during the same time period he was committing the online offences.
In 2021, he was charged by the Australian Federal Police after they were contacted by Interpol and police in the United States raising concerns about a person, believed to be in Australia, who was targeting young girls through social media.
The court also heard that Rasheed spent hundreds of hours engaged in a sex offender treatment programme while in prison, however, a psychiatrist found he still represented a “well above average risk” of reoffending.
As per the report prepared by a psychiatrist for the court detailed how Rasheed moved to Australia from Pakistan at a young age and how his parents were “traditional, conservative and strict”.
(With inputs from agencies)
