Bilal Kazi, an Indian national in the United Kingdom, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for grooming underage girls and manipulating them into sending sexually explicit videos and images of themselves, the BBC reported.
Who is Bilal Kazi?
Originally from Mumbai, Kazi was studying for a PhD in Chester before transferring to Birmingham University, where he studied chemistry, according to Sky News.
Kazi groomed and exploited more than 70 girls from across the UK online. The 27-year-old posed as a white British teenage boy called "Reece", police said.
He used pictures of an unidentified minor to befriend young girls on social media platforms such as Snapchat, Roblox, Wink, and Wizz between August 2021 and August 2025.
Kazi built fake romantic relationships with girls aged between 10 and 17. Once he earned their trust, he manipulated them into sending intimate photos and videos.
Also read | Israel Kills Senior Hamas Commander Who Planned, Oversaw October 7 Attack
When victims grew uncomfortable or refused, Kazi turned abusive. He threatened to leak their private photos to friends and family, and in some cases, he hacked their social media accounts to distribute the explicit material directly to their peers.
The case came to light when one of the victims reported the abuse she had suffered to Derbyshire Police in November 2021. The victim reported that her Snapchat account was hacked and the content she had shared with Kazi was sent to her friends.
He was detained after a probe involving 28 of the UK's 45 police forces.
Police believe that there could be as many as 180 victims.
He had left the country, but was arrested on his return to the UK at Heathrow Airport in July 2023 and was interviewed in relation to the allegations made by the first victim.
As per the BBC, he was handed a sentence of a minimum of 20 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
Also read | 2 With Pakistan Links Arrested In Punjab For Rajasthan Train Track Blast
'Very dangerous person'
During the sentencing, Judge Stephen Everett addressed Kazi directly, calling him a "very dangerous person" whose actions put severe trauma on young lives.
"It is incomprehensible to me why any person would do what you did to those little girls," the court heard," the court heard.
"This was bad enough, but when one learns of all the other images you demanded for your deviant sexual desires, we will never know how many victims there were."
"Children who believed they were safe in their own homes - and by your gross misuse of social media - you took away all of that safety, all of that comfort."
