Muhammad Rasheed Jailed For 17 Years in Australia For Sexual Abuse of Hundreds of Victims

[Social Media]

 

Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, a sexual predator who impersonated a teenage YouTube star to exploit and blackmail hundreds of children into performing sexual acts, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison. Judge Amanda Burrows of the District Court of Western Australia delivered the sentence on Tuesday, describing the magnitude of Rasheed's offenses as unprecedented, stating, "There is no comparable case … I can find in Australia."

 

Rasheed, 29, employed a calculated method to target children both within Australia and internationally by posing as a 15-year-old social media influencer with a significant following. He approached children online under this guise, using pictures of the online star and starting conversations with seemingly harmless questions to earn their trust. Once the trust was established, Rasheed's tactics escalated to sexually explicit "fantasies" that he encouraged the children to approve of, followed by demands for pictures of themselves that he could "rate."

 

The demands quickly became more "humiliating," with Rasheed threatening to expose screenshots of the children's responses to their friends and family unless they complied with his increasingly extreme demands. These demands included acts involving family pets and, in some cases, other young siblings or children in the home. Judge Burrows described these offenses as "of a degrading, humiliating nature," emphasizing that the conduct involving a family pet was "particularly abhorrent."

 

Rasheed's methods involved setting a "countdown" timer to coerce compliance, threatening to distribute the children's responses and additional images he had manipulated if they did not obey his commands. Judge Burrows pointed out that Rasheed's offenses were further aggravated by his involvement with groups of other adults, including other pedophiles, who watched live streams of the distressing acts he directed the children to perform. In several cases, despite the children's "obvious distress" and "extreme fear," with some even expressing suicidal thoughts, Rasheed continued his campaign of bullying and coercion.

 

Over an 11-month period, Rasheed committed a staggering 665 offenses involving 286 victims. His crimes came to light when the Australian Federal Police charged him in 2021 after being alerted by Interpol and U.S. authorities, who had identified an individual, believed to be in Australia, targeting young girls via social media. Rasheed is already serving a five-year prison term for a separate crime involving the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old child in his car on two separate occasions at a Perth park. Notably, this abuse occurred during the same period he was carrying out his online offenses.

 

During sentencing, Judge Burrows noted the high risk of Rasheed reoffending, even though he had spent hundreds of hours participating in a sex offenders treatment program while in prison. A psychiatric evaluation presented in court indicated that Rasheed remains at a "well above average risk" of reoffending. This assessment was attributed to a persistent sexual interest in pubescent children, referred to as "hebephilia," and a diagnosis of "coercive sexual sadism disorder."

 

The court heard that Rasheed's background involved moving to Australia from Pakistan at a young age. His upbringing in a "traditional, conservative and strict" household and his attendance at an all-boys private school, where he and his brothers were the only Muslim students, led to feelings of social isolation. Rasheed's criminal behavior began in 2018 when he started accessing child exploitation material, which eventually escalated to direct offending with children in 2019, after the initial material "lost its effect."

 

The court also heard that Rasheed's distorted views on women posed a significant barrier to his rehabilitation. Prior to his imprisonment, he had been actively engaged with misogynistic "incel" online communities, which promote the demeaning belief that women are inferior and owe men sex. The report presented in court stated, "You began to see women and girls as objects of gratification rather than people. These ideas were amplified in the forums … you visited." The report further elaborated that Rasheed's "sexual gratification did not come from the images … but from the dynamic in which you had power and could assert your will."

 

In determining Rasheed's sentence, Judge Burrows acknowledged his youth, his participation in a sexual treatment program in prison, and his early plea. However, she emphasized that these factors needed to be weighed against the necessity of sending a strong message of deterrence and considering the vulnerability of the victims. She noted, "The victims will forever live with the fear that the recordings you made of them will be [further] disseminated." Rasheed will be eligible to apply for parole in August of 2033, when he'll be 38 years old.

 

Credit: ABC News 2024-08-29

 

 

 

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[simple1]

Should be life without parole.

[Tug]

Put him in the general population in the penitentiary this will be solved in short order

[RichardColeman]

2 hours ago, Social Media said:

Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed

What do you expect when his religious book promotes marrying children ?

[loong]

Why do so many immigrants not belong in a civilised society?

[Homburg]

18 minutes ago, loong said:

Why do so many immigrants not belong in a civilised society?

There does seem to be an incredibly naïve belief among governments that if you take Mo out of Mogadishu then, almost magically, Mogadishu evaporates out of Mo.  We are living with the consequences of that naivety

[Foxx]

3 hours ago, Social Media said:

hundreds of hours participating in a sex offenders treatment program

 

How long does it take to smash together two bricks? They're clearly not using the right approach.

[koolkarl]

The death penalty is always useful as a deterrent.  And this loser deserves it.

[JonnyF]

4 hours ago, Social Media said:

The court heard that Rasheed's background involved moving to Australia from Pakistan at a young age.

 

Surely this should result in a reduced sentence on the grounds of cultural enrichment?

 

I mean, our countries were so terrible before all of this immigration. And look at us now. Going from strength to strength.

 

Shades of the Rotherham grooming gangs on this one...

[john donson]

should be 17 years per victim...

[Grumpy one]

2 hours ago, Foxx said:

 

How long does it take to smash together two bricks? They're clearly not using the right approach.

Quite right, 2 bricks then an old rusty bread knife to remove the squashed bits

[TroubleandGrumpy]

17 years for each offence PLUS castration would seem appropriate to me.

 

IMO we have taken criminal sentencing too far towards the female mentality (motherhood BS).

The first reason for any sentencing should be PUNISHMENT of the guilty.

The second reason should be as a DETTERENT for others not to do the same.

The last reason should be Rehabilitation - as an attempt to stop them offending again.

 

Nowadays it seems to me that the sentencing regime is focused more on rehabilitation than punishment and deterrent.

 

 

 

 

 

[simple1]

3 hours ago, koolkarl said:

The death penalty is always useful as a deterrent.  And this loser deserves it.

Death Penalty has never been identified as a deterrent to offending

[ballpoint]

Funny. He doesn't look catholic.

[Foxx]

1 hour ago, ballpoint said:

Funny. He doesn't look catholic.

 

Oh, pay attention.  His targets were little girls - not little boys.

[Homburg]

3 hours ago, simple1 said:

Death Penalty has never been identified as a deterrent to offending

That is perhaps debateable, nevertheless it certainly does prevent re-offending.

[Will B Good]

3 hours ago, simple1 said:

Death Penalty has never been identified as a deterrent to offending

 

 

....certainly not for re-offending.

[BusyB]

 

A quick survey of the numbers released from death row or life without parole is enough argument against the DP. I don't wish to be associated with the killing of an innocent person, nor do I wish to risk being that person.

 

It doesn't matter if this disgusting piece of filth is 100% guilty. Someone else may not be. That someone may be you as well.

 

Life without parole, in enhanced measures. Also gives him many years of corrosive regret later in life.

[youreavinalaff]

9 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

What do you expect when his religious book promotes marrying children ?

Which religious book would that be?

[cncltd1973]

of course he is Pakistani. England has the Pakistani grooming gangs that abused thousands of English girls and the subsequent coverup by muslim politicians. disproportionate number of pedos and cousin brides and honor killings and gang rapists are Pakistanis. numbers don't lie 

[youreavinalaff]

3 hours ago, cncltd1973 said:

of course he is Pakistani. England has the Pakistani grooming gangs that abused thousands of English girls and the subsequent coverup by muslim politicians. disproportionate number of pedos and cousin brides and honor killings and gang rapists are Pakistanis. numbers don't lie 

Would you like to share those numbers?

 

Thanks.

[koolkarl]

On 8/29/2024 at 11:32 AM, simple1 said:

Death Penalty has never been identified as a deterrent to offending

It would for me.

[MicroB]

Another topic deliberately picked to promote discord and discussion, to create traffic for a Forum format that's on its knees. Quelle surprise. The responses are predictable, and inconquential (except in one important aspect).

[JonnyF]

Good to see Aussie police taking it seriously.

 

The UK police did their best to ignore the Rotherham grooming gangs, and were only finally shamed into taking minor action by some well known public figures. 

 

Got to see Australia mostly has one tier policing. Unlike the UK.