Indian student in UK jailed for 30 years for grooming 70 girls online

Indian student Bilal Kazi

London: An Indian student has been sent to prison for 30 years for grooming at least 70 girls online and forcing them to commit sexual acts.Bilal Kazi (27), a student from India at University of Chester, was sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Friday after pleading guilty to 37 child sexual abuse offences.

These included 24 counts of causing a child (including under 13 years) to engage in sexual activity, six counts of blackmail, and three counts of making indecent photographs of a child.Kazi, who lived in Birmingham, posed as a white British teenage boy called Reece on social media and gaming platforms, including Snapchat, Roblox and Wink. Using photographs of an unidentified boy, he would quickly groom girls aged 10 to 15 into believing they were in a genuine relationship with him.

Once he had gained their trust, Kazi would begin requesting explicit images and videos of them carrying out sexual acts. When his victims refused to comply, Kazi would threaten to share the images and videos they had already sent him.The investigation into Kazi began after one of his victims reported him to police in Nov 2021. She had begun speaking to Kazi on Snapchat when she was 13 and he began requesting naked images and videos from her.Kazi had left the country but was arrested at Heathrow airport on his return to the UK in July 2023. Police found more than 900 indecent images and videos on his devices.