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

A sexual predator who targeted mostly Muslim males online for blackmail has been jailed for 16 years, with detectives fearing he may have up to 70 more victims. Waleed Saeed’s campaign of entrapment, threat and extortion started in 2018 and left one victim feeling suicidal because of the humiliation they felt. Police said the 31-year-old targeted people from culturally conservative backgrounds to exploit any shame they may feel during a six-year campaign of offending. Detectives believe he would mostly pretend to be either a young woman or a transgender woman using false online profiles and encouraged those he targeted to send intimate pictures. He would then reveal himself to be a man and demand hundreds of pounds, often threatening​ they would be exposed to their families, communities, universities, workplaces and ​friends. In one case he did send compromising images to someone known to his victim. Saeed, from Ilford, east London, was caught in 2024 when he coerced a victim to meet him in an east London park and then donned a balaclava to rape and sexually assault him. He was found guilty in March and jailed at Snaresbrook crown court on Friday for 17 offences against five males, including one rape, blackmail and making indecent images of children. Detectives from the Metropolitan police believe Saeed had many more victims, aged from their mid teens to their 20s. …