“The investigation team have been horrified"
A serial blackmailer and paedophile has confessed to more than 150 sexual offence charges.
Twenty-six-year-old Abdul Elahi, of Birmingham, is facing years in prison for his heinous crimes.
Elahi admitted to blackmailing over 2,000 people around the world into abusing themselves, siblings and children.
He also sold the footage as “box sets” to other offenders, and used Telegram to provide “masterclasses” to help paedophiles avoid detection.
Elahi made more than £25,000 with the box sets, which included videos of victims mutilating themselves and abusing other people.
Elahi targeted his victims while disguised as a stockbroker or a rich businessman on sugar daddy websites.
He singled out those in debt, or those too young to be on the sites legitimately, and tricked them into sending him naked pictures of themselves.
He also promised thousands of pounds in return for images and sent fake screenshots of money leaving his account to convince the victims.
When he received enough images, Elahi threatened to expose them unless they sent more.
An investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) found that Abdul Elahi contacted at least 600 people online in the UK.
He also tried to contact more than 1,300 women in the US, as well as victims from 20 other countries.
His targets were of a range of ages, and some were as young as eight months old.
The NCA arrested Abdul Elahi on December 19, 2018, after allegations arose of him blackmailing a 15-year-old American girl.
He was eventually charged by the Crown Prosecution Service and remanded in August 2020.
Elahi’s horrific crimes were committed between January 1, 2017, and August 7, 2020. His charges include:
- Multiple counts of blackmail.
- Disclosing private sexual films and photographs to cause distress.
- Making and distributing indecent images of children.
- Encouraging the sexual assault of children.
- Sexually assaulting a boy.
- Causing or inciting children to engage in sexual activity.
- Fraud.
- Possessing more than 65,000 indecent images of children (IIOC), including babies being raped.
Abdul Elahi admitted to all of the charges at Birmingham Crown Court.
Speaking of Abdul Elahi’s horrific crimes, the NCA’s Head of CSA operations Tony Cook said:
“The investigation team have been horrified by Elahi’s sadistic depravity and stunned by the industrial scale of his worldwide offending.
“Elahi sought sexual gratification from having power and control of his victims and he’s displayed zero empathy for them.”
“He often goaded them to the point of wanting to kill themselves.”
“The effects on the victims, in this case, will continue throughout the rest of their lives.”
Cook went on to commend the victims for their bravery in coming forward and encouraged people to seek help if they need it.
Abdul Elahi will be sentenced for his charges at Birmingham Crown Court in September 2021.
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