UK sexual predator who blackmailed Muslim men online jailed for 16 years | Crime

A sexual harasser who targeted mostly Muslim men to blackmail them online has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, while detectives fear he has as many as 70 more victims.

Waleed Saeed’s campaign of entrapment, threats and extortion began in 2018 and left two victims feeling suicidal due to the humiliation they felt.

Police said the 31-year-old targeted people from culturally conservative backgrounds to capitalize on any embarrassment they might feel during his six-year crime campaign.

Detectives believe it will She uses fake online profiles, often pretending to be a young woman or transgender woman, and encourages her targets to send intimate photos.

He would then reveal that he was a man and demand hundreds of pounds, often threatening to expose them to their families or publicly..

Saeed, from Ilford, east London, was caught in 2024 when he forced a victim to meet him in an East London park with her face covered so he could rape and sexually assault her. He was found guilty in March and jailed at Snaresbrook crown court on Friday on 17 charges against five men, including one count of rape, blackmail and making indecent images of children.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police believe Saeed had many more victims, ranging from his teens to his 20s. Searches of their electronic devices turned up multiple images of men, and detectives believe there may be 50 to 70 more victims alone.

Some could not be identified because police had intimate footage that did not show faces or because the username was not the real name of the person Saeed was targeting.

Detectives also combed through details of similar unsolved or closed cases and found 24 cases where details of the crime were so similar that police suspected he might be a suspect in those cases.

Detectives believe in potential scale The number of other victims could be anywhere between the 70s and 90s. In total, he was convicted for targeting five victims, two of whom were teenagers aged 15 and 17.

Judge Timothy Greene said Saeed, who had a university degree, was “adept at dealing psychological blows” to his victims, basking in the power he had gained and leaving them in “terror” of being exposed.

The judge said that after raping a victim whom he forced to lie on the ground of a park, Saeed said “that’s it for today” and walked away.

The court heard a victim went to police in 2018 and Saeed was arrested and released on bail a year later. However, his crime continued even after no charges were brought.

His victims told the court about their pain. One of them said: “I felt trapped and lost,” adding that Saeed had taken her virginity.

The victim said she paid more than £3,600 in total because she feared her family and friends would shun her if they found out. She added: “The shame I feel in letting this happen to me is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.”

DC Peter Collington of the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation into Saeed, said: “Our investigation leads us to believe that the true extent of his crimes is likely to be much wider.

“The pattern of crime we have uncovered is deeply disturbing and demonstrates a level of deliberate manipulation and cruelty that causes enormous harm to innocent people…

“We know that Saeed began offending in 2018, deliberately targeting young men from South Asian and Muslim backgrounds under the impression that surviving victims would be less likely to come forward to the police. As part of our investigation, we have equipped those who have already come forward with specific support.”

Collington urged those who believe they were victims of Saeed’s “sexual blackmail” to contact police and promised officers would act sensitively in investigating their cases in the hope of bringing new charges against Saeed. “Following his sentencing, I’m making a direct appeal to other victim-survivors who don’t have the confidence to come forward to please contact us. I want to make it clear to potential victims out there: what happened to you was not your fault,” he said.

“We want to be absolutely clear that no one’s sexuality should be exploited or weaponized against them in this way. .”

Saeed lured his victims by scouring Snapchat, Grindr and Twitter, using a series of usernames including “Trans Girl Leah,” “amzyyyy09.”, “blsup” and “ComeDeal.” Police said he was brutalizing victims, believed to be in London and across the UK, using 100 online aliases.

His arrest came after he raped an 18-year-old man in a London park in August 2024. His victim said they exchanged sexual images with someone they believed was a transgender woman.

A different account then sent them messages demanding money from a man or the explicit photos would be published.

The victim said they could not pay, and Saeed forced her to meet in person, threatening to release the photos if she refused. They met three times late at night, where Saeed sexually assaulted and raped the victim.

The rape victim went to the police, who examined the data on the social media accounts Saeed used to find her, and she was arrested in November 2024.