Rapist who ‘catfished’ young men sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court
Barry McElduff KC led Philip Allman for the prosecution in the trial in which the Defendant Waleed Saeed had ‘catfished’ 5 young Asian males.
The ‘catfishing’ occurred on Snapchat; with the Defendant who was in his late 20s posing as either a teenage girl, teenage boy or a person with transgender identity. The Defendant would trick his victims into exchanging sexual images with him. Once obtained, he would blackmail them for money or more sexual images and threaten to release their images online.
Such was the hold he had over his victims, one of them was forced to meet him in a park where he was raped on multiple occasions. Having pleaded guilty on the first day of trial to offences relating to 4 of his 5 victims, the Defendant was subsequently convicted by a jury in relation to the victim he had raped.
For more details of the case please follow the link below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyenemwnd9o
