- Bilal Kazi sentenced 30 years for online child exploitation.
- He posed as teen, grooming 70 young girls online.
- Kazi coerced sexual acts, blackmailed victims with images.
- Investigation identified 70 victims across 28 UK forces.
An Indian student who posed as a teenage boy on social media and gaming platforms to sexually exploit children has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United Kingdom.
Bilal Kazi, 27, was handed the sentence at Chester Crown Court in north-west England on Friday after admitting to multiple online child sexual abuse offences.
Described by British authorities as a “serial online groomer”, Kazi targeted girls aged between 10 and 15. He gained their trust by pretending to be a teenage boy before coercing them into performing sexual acts and sharing explicit images and videos.
“Bilal Kazi acted with absolute ruthlessness in grooming, manipulating and exploiting a large number of young vulnerable girls,” said Martin McRobb, specialist prosecutor at the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
“He befriended them online and forced them to take photos and videos carrying out sexual acts. He then blackmailed those who refused to comply with his further demands, threatening to post the explicit imagery to others,” McRobb said.
He added that Kazi made several victims believe they were in genuine relationships with him. When they discovered that they had been deceived, many were left distressed, with some suffering serious and long-term trauma.
The CPS said its Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit presented extensive evidence collected by investigators from Cheshire and West Midlands police forces. The investigation, which spanned multiple jurisdictions, revealed the scale of Kazi’s online activity and the number of children he had targeted.
Detective Constable Georgia Hughes, from Cheshire Constabulary’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team, described the probe as a “truly mammoth investigation” that required significant resources and close coordination between police forces.
She said Kazi exploited the trust of young girls, many of whom believed their interactions with him were their first romantic relationships. His actions had a profound and lasting impact on the victims, some of whom lived in constant fear of what he might do if they refused his demands.
How Bilal Kazi Groomed His Victims Online
According to Cheshire Constabulary, Kazi followed a recurring pattern to approach and manipulate children online. He contacted girls through platforms such as Snapchat, Roblox and Wink, posing as a white British teenage boy named “Reece”.
To support the false identity, he used photographs of an unidentified boy and convinced his targets that they were communicating with someone their own age.
One victim began chatting with Kazi on Snapchat when she was 13, believing he was also a teenager. Their exchanges soon turned sexual, with Kazi asking her inappropriate questions.
In July 2021, the girl told him she wanted to remain friends and would no longer send him images. Kazi responded with verbal abuse and claimed she was his property. He also threatened to circulate the photographs and videos she had already shared with him among her friends unless she continued complying with his demands.
Fearing that the material would be made public, the victim continued sending him explicit images and videos. Her Snapchat account was subsequently hacked, and the content she had shared with Kazi was sent to her friends. She reported him to Derbyshire Police in November 2021.
The investigation was later taken over by Cheshire Constabulary after officers established that Kazi’s last known address was in Chester. Although he had left the UK, he was arrested at Heathrow Airport in July 2023 after returning to the country and was questioned over the allegations.
Police Identify 70 Victims Across 28 UK Forces
Investigators subsequently uncovered the extent of Kazi’s offending, identifying 180 potential victims through usernames and other data recovered from his device.
Of these, 70 victims, aged between 11 and 17 at the time of the offences, were identified across 28 of the UK’s 45 police forces, Cheshire Constabulary said.
Specialist victim identification officers worked to trace those targeted by Kazi using the recovered data. Police officers visited all 70 identified victims and offered them an opportunity to report their experiences.
Detective Sergeant Ross Peel of Cheshire Constabulary said the case demonstrated the police’s commitment to protecting vulnerable people and bringing an end to the sexual exploitation of children.
He also warned those who believe that hiding behind a screen makes them anonymous and untouchable.
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