A man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for one of the UK's worst sextortion cases, involving the blackmail and sexual assault of young Muslim and South Asian men. Waleed Saeed, 31, used fake social media profiles to target his victims, threatening to share intimate images with their families if they did not comply with his demands.
Saeed posed as a woman or transgender woman on platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Grindr to solicit explicit images from his victims, many of whom were teenagers. He then blackmailed them, demanding money or sexual favors. When victims could not pay, he coerced them into meeting in person, where he sexually assaulted them.
The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation in August 2024 after a rape in a London park was reported. The victim had exchanged images with someone he believed to be a transgender woman but was later revealed to be Saeed. Saeed was convicted of 17 offences, including rape, blackmail, and making indecent images of children.
Detective Constable Peter Collington described Saeed's actions as 'a level of deliberate manipulation and cruelty that caused immense harm.' The police are now investigating around 100 more potential victims.
Saeed's offending dates back to 2018, and his case has been described as one of the largest 'sexploitation' cases handled by the Metropolitan Police. The court heard how Saeed's actions left his victims feeling suicidal and traumatized.