A man who posed as a teenage YouTube star and sexually extorted and abused 286 girls worldwide has been described by authorities as one of Australia’s most prolific online underage sexual predators, and is still awaiting his fate.
Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, 29, is already serving a prison sentence for luring a 14-year-old girl to a car park and sexually assaulting her in 2019.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Perth District Court revealed disturbing details of other crimes in the months before and after the attack, in which the petroleum engineer scoured the internet for underage victims, pretended to be friends with them and then blackmailed them for sexual images.
The former private school student has so many victims that his sentencing hearing will last two days to inventory the crimes. The Western Australian reported.
Victims came from across Australia and 20 countries worldwide, including the US, Canada and New Zealand.
Rasheed posed as a YouTube personality to befriend girls online and used a questionnaire to extort them into sending sexually explicit material.
The questionnaire Rasheed sent consisted of 20 questions and asked his victims: “What is your darkest secret?”
Once that was done, Rasheed would send the girl a written sexual fantasy in two parts, asking if they wanted it. The only answers were “Yes or no.”
Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, 25, faces punishment for blackmailing hundreds of underage victims with sexually explicit material
If the answer was yes, Rasheed asked for intimate photos of the girl in her underwear or naked.
If that didn’t work, he threatened to send the answer about the fantasy to her followers on Instagram.
If photos were sent, he threatened to make them public if the victim did not comply with his demands.
“The perpetrator always posed as an internationally popular 15-year-old teenage YouTube star. This YouTube star was known for his large following among young teenage girls,” prosecutor Andrew Sprague told the court.
‘The perpetrator created 17 Instagram and Snapchat accounts … to commit online crimes against child and young adult victims.’
Authorities seized Rasheed’s computer equipment in 2019 when they raided his Perth home following a tip from US authorities and Interpol
Prosecutors told the court that Rasheed would insist on live chats on Instagram, but would record them.
This also involved group conversations with other men, leading to the arrest of another participant in California.
The court heard horrific details of girls begging Rasheed to leave them alone, but then giving him a countdown of minutes, saying if they didn’t he would reveal their intimate details.
Some of the girls threatened to harm themselves, but Rasheed continued to blackmail them.
In a very disturbing case An 11-year-old girl from Canada was told to rape herself and then involve her pet and brother in the act, while Rasheed and other men watched and commented.
Australian authorities were tipped off about Rasheed’s activities in 2019 by investigators from the United States Homeland Security and Interpol.
After later raiding his Perth home, detectives initially identified 112 alleged victims of Rasheed, but further examination of his electronic devices revealed what are believed to be hundreds more victims.
Rasheed sat silently in the dock, showing no emotion as his horrific crimes came to light in court on Thursday.
His lawyer told the court she may request a new report on the 29-year-old before imposing her sentence.