Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed: Grim way Australia's worst ever online sexual predator targeted underage girls - as the disgusting questions he would ask them are revealed

By DAVID SOUTHWELL, NEWS REPORTER

Published: | Updated:

A man who impersonated a teenage YouTube star to sexually extort and abuse 286 girls worldwide has been described by authorities as one of Australian's most prolific online underage sex predators as he awaits his fate. 

Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, 29, is already behind bars, having previously been jailed for luring a 14-year-old girl to a carpark and sexually assaulting her in 2019.

Disturbing details of other crimes in the months before and after that assault, where the petroleum engineer trawled the internet for underage victims and pretended to befriend them before extorting them for sexual images was laid bare by prosecutors in Perth's District Court on Thursday.

The former private school student accrued so many victims that his sentencing hearing will run for two days to catalogue the crimes, The West Australian reported.

The victims were from all 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 was modelled on 20 Questions and asked his victims 'What is your darkest secret?'

Once that was completed Rasheed would send the girl a written sexual fantasy in two parts asking them whether they would like that with the only replies being 'Yes or no.'

Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, 25, is facing sentencing over blackmailing sexually explicit material from hundreds of underage victims

It the reply was 'yes', Rasheed would ask for intimate pictures of the girl in her underwear or naked.

If that was refused he would threaten to send the answer about the fantasy to her Instagram follower base.

If photos were sent, he would also threaten to release those unless the victim kept following his demands.

'The offender always pretended to (be an) internationally popular YouTube star teen aged 15. This YouTube star was known for having a large following among young teenage girls,' prosecutor Andrew Sprague told the court.

'The offender created 17 Instagram and Snapchat accounts ... variously to commit offences against children and young adult victims online.'

Authorities seized Rasheed's computer equipment in 2019 when they raided his Perth home after a tip-off from US authorities and Interpol

Authorities seized Rasheed's computer equipment in 2019 when they raided his Perth home after a tip-off from US authorities and Interpol

Prosecutors told the court that Rasheed would insist on live Instagram chats but would record them.

This also involved group chats with other men, which has led to an arrest of another participant in California.

The court heard horrific details of girls begging Rasheed to leave them alone only for him to post a countdown of minutes for them to comply or he release their intimate details.

Some girls threatened to commit self-harm but Rasheed kept blackmailing them.

In one very disturbing case an  11 year-girl from Canada was instructed to violate herself, and then involve her family pet and her brother while Rasheed and other men watched and commented.

Australian authorities were tipped off by United States Homeland Security investigators and Interpol to Rasheed's activities in 2019.

After later swooping on his Perth home, investigators initially identified 112 alleged victims of Rasheed after before further examination of his electronic devices allegedly revealed hundreds more victims.  

Rasheed sat silent in the dock and showed no emotion as his heinous crimes were laid bare in court on Thursday.

His lawyer told the court she may ask for another report to be compiled on the 29 year-old before sentencing.

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