In 2022, Abdul Elahi, the Sparkhill Paedophile Blackmailer, convicted of “sickening” and “abhorrent” sexual abuse, received a 32-year prison sentence.
Abdul Elahi used nearly 2,000 people to collect photographs of humiliating sexual practices, subsequently selling these images to paedophiles.
In many instances, mothers were coerced into maltreating an infant or a sibling, with Abdul Elahi proposing to settle their obligations.
He acknowledged 158 offences perpetrated against 72 accusers.
He will also face an eight-year extension to his standard license upon release.
At Birmingham Crown Court during sentencing, he was characterised as being “in a league of his own” regarding the magnitude of his online offences.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) characterised Abdul Elahi’s misconduct as among the most “abhorrent sexual offences” it had ever examined.
His victims varied in age from infants of eight months to adults, it stated.
In sentencing him, Judge Sarah Buckingham characterised the 26-year-old, Abdul Elahi, previously of Sparkhill in Birmingham, as the “most egregious type of predatory offender identified to date”.
The court was informed that approximately 67,000 indecent photos of children had been retrieved from hard drives, with victims originating from more than 30 countries.
The judge stated, “It is inconceivable to trace and eliminate all the material you have disseminated online, which continues to inflict distress on your victims.”
“The egregious nature of your offences necessitates a lengthy sentence for public safety.”
At the start of the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, the court heard Abdul Elahi used fake personas, including those of a doctor or a wealthy stockbroker, offering financial assistance and promising to pay off debts with Bitcoin, before persuading people to send him explicit photographs.
So-called “box sets” of abusive images and videos compiled by Abdul Elahi were distributed in vast quantities, the court heard, after girls and young adults were blackmailed into providing ever more humiliating and degrading sexual material.
“Your demands increased in their viciousness, their depravity, even when your victims begged for mercy,” the judge told Abdul Elahi.
“Even when you knew they were suicidal, you laughed at their distress and pain.”
Abdul Abdul Elahi’s sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court lasted three days.
A variety of impact statements were presented to the court, including one from a victim who was a schoolgirl at the time of the acts.
She recounted attempting to overdose upon seeing that Abdul Elahi had posted her photographs on Twitter.
“I would say for two years this person has ruined my life. I was heartbroken. I remember my 16th birthday; I spent the night crying. I was severely depressed.
“I am trying to move on, but find it very hard. This will be with me for the rest of my life.”
Another teenage victim described feeling “shaken to my soul and completely horrified that I was a part of this”.
Tony Cook of the NCA said: “Abdul Elahi is a depraved sadist who got sexual gratification through power and control over his victims, whom he often goaded to the point of wanting to kill themselves.
“Abdul Elahi has wrecked lives and families.”
Approximately 550 women and female children in Britain are thought to have been victimised by Abdul Elahi, who sold one client over 1,000 hours of footage.
The court was informed that he perceived his offences as employment. In post-arrest interviews, he confessed to “attempting to maximise his financial gain” as much as possible.
The Revenge Porn Helpline reported that it had collaborated with the NCA for over two and a half years to eliminate web content, successfully removing 135,000 individual photos.
“We hope that every person affected by this feels some small sense of closure today. We know that their priority is removing this content,” said Sophie Mortimer, from the charity.
Kirsty Nicholls was admitted to working with Abdul Elahi to make indecent images of a child and also sexually assaulting a child.
Co-defendant Kirsty Nicholls, 35, of Northolt, west London, who admitted working with Abdul Elahi to make indecent images of a child, was jailed for six years and nine months.
Kirsty Nicholls met Abdul Elahi on a so-called sugar daddy website, targeting financially desperate women.
“You committed these offences with Elahi – your offending was motivated entirely by financial gain,” the judge told Nicholls.
“The offences are so serious that only an immediate custody sentence can follow.”
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