An Australian Court has sentenced a young man, Muhammad Zain al-Abidin Rashid, 29, to 17 years in prison for impersonating a “famous young YouTuber” and blackmailing hundreds of girls worldwide into performing sexual acts.

He admitted guilt to 119 charges. David McLean, Assistant Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, labeled Rasheed’s actions as “one of the worst sextortion cases in history.” In her remarks during sentencing, Judge Amanda Burrows stated that she could find “no comparable case” in the history of Australian law.

“The scope and persistence of your offending and the time that you took to engage in it is quite extraordinary,” the judge said.

The court revealed that Australian police were first alerted to Rasheed’s activities on Instagram in June 2019, following a referral from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Interpol. In September of that year, police raided his residence, confiscated an undisclosed number of devices, and charged him with an initial child abuse offense. According to the Australian Federal Police, further investigations uncovered hundreds of victims across 20 countries, including the United States, Canada, and Britain.

In her sentencing comments, Burrows noted that chat logs revealed Rasheed impersonated a popular 15-year-old YouTube star to initially connect with his victims on Instagram. (The court did not disclose the YouTuber’s identity and stated it was unclear if he was aware of the impersonation.)

In most instances, Rasheed would start by sending harmless questions to make the victims feel at ease before eventually transitioning to sexually explicit inquiries. He then blackmailed them by taking screenshots of their responses and threatening to share those with the victims’ followers unless they provided sexually explicit images in return.

“This initiated a cycle of control over the victim,” Burrows remarked during the sentencing. Investigations revealed that Rasheed recorded 418 videos of 102 of his victims, including 72 minors, without their consent.

Rasheed concealed his identity by only communicating with his victims through text, the court found. “You didn’t speak to her directly and rarely activated your webcam,” the judge noted during Tuesday’s sentencing. “The victim usually never saw your real face while you blackmailed and abused her.”

“The predator, under the guise of a social media celebrity, manipulated and exploited 286 children and young adults for his own sadistic enjoyment. Most of these victims were in their own homes, a place where they should feel secure,” McLean stated.

“This kind of online exploitation and abuse is devastating and leads to lifelong trauma,” he added.

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The judge remarked that after finishing school, Rasheed struggled to form relationships with women and became involved in incel communities online. “You began to view women and girls as objects for your gratification rather than as individuals,” a perspective that “was likely reinforced by certain online communities you participated in,” she said. She also indicated that Rasheed was driven more by sexual gratification than by financial motives.

In an email on Wednesday, Rasheed’s attorney, Monica Snowball, mentioned that the judge deemed her client to be “truly remorseful” and noted that he had completed a “high-intensity sex offender program.

The offenses took place between November 2018 and September 2019. In one particularly severe case, the court noted that Rasheed continued to exploit a victim who was self-harming and expressing suicidal thoughts.

Over 11 months, Rasheed used Instagram to build trust with 286 victims, some as young as 10, before pressuring them into performing degrading sexual acts on camera. Burrows noted that Rasheed’s “hostile attitude” towards girls and women was likely shaped by his involvement in online forums for “incels,” men who identify as involuntarily celibate.