A sexual predator who targeted mostly Muslim males online for blackmail has been jailed for 16 years, with detectives fearing he may have up to 70 more victims.

Waleed Saeed’s campaign of entrapment, threat and extortion started in 2018 and left one victim feeling suicidal because of the humiliation they felt.

Police said the 31-year-old targeted people from culturally conservative backgrounds to exploit any shame they may feel during a six-year campaign of offending.

Detectives believe he would mostly pretend to be either a young woman or a transgender woman using false online profiles and encouraged those he targeted to send intimate pictures.

He would then reveal himself to be a man and demand hundreds of pounds, often threatening​ they would be exposed to their families, communities, universities, workplaces and ​friends. In one case he did send compromising images to someone known to his victim.

Saeed, from Ilford, east London, was caught in 2024 when he coerced a victim to meet him in an east London park and then donned a balaclava to rape and sexually assault him. He was found guilty in March and jailed at Snaresbrook crown court on Friday for 17 offences against five males, including one rape, blackmail and making indecent images of children.

Detectives from the Metropolitan police believe Saeed had many more victims, aged from their mid teens to their 20s. Searches of his electronic devices unearthed scores of pictures of men, and from this alone detectives believe there may be 50 to 70 more victims.

Some have not been identified as all police have are intimate images that do not show faces, or where the username is not the real name of the person whom Saeed targeted.

Detectives also combed through details of similar unsolved or closed cases and found 24 where the details of the offending were similar enough to lead police to suspect he may be a suspect in those.

Detectives believe the potential range of further victims could be anywhere between the 70s and 90s. In all, he was sentenced for targeting five victims, two of whom were teenagers aged 15 and 17.

His victims told the court of their anguish. One said: “I felt trapped and lost,” adding Saeed had taken his virginity.

The victim said he paid more than £3,600 in total, fearing family and friends would ostracise him if they found out, and added: “The shame I felt by letting this happen to me is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.”

DC Peter Collington of the Metropolitan police, who is leading the investigation into Saeed, said: “Our investigation has led us to believe that the true scale of his offending is likely to be significantly wider.

“The pattern of offending we have uncovered is deeply disturbing and shows a level of deliberate manipulation and cruelty that has caused immense harm to innocent men, with two of them being just 15 and 17 at the time.

“We know Saeed began offending in 2018, deliberately targeting young men from south Asian and Muslim backgrounds on the impression that these victim-survivors would be less likely to contact police. As part of our investigation, we’ve wrapped dedicated support around those who have already come forward.”

Collington urged those who may believe they were victims of Saeed’s “sextortion” to contact police, and promised officers would be sensitive as they investigate their cases, hoping to bring new charges against Saeed. “Following his sentence, I am making a direct appeal to other victim-survivors who may not have had the confidence to come forward, to please contact us. I want to say this clearly to potential victims out there: that what has happened to you was not your fault,” he said.

“We want to be absolutely clear that no one should ever have their sexuality exploited or weaponised against them in this way. You will be treated with compassion, sensitivity and absolute confidentiality. What has been done to you is wrong, and we will do everything in our power to support you.”

Saeed would lure his victims, scouring Snapchat, Grindr and Twitter, using an array of user names such as “Trans Girl Leah”, “amzyyyy09.”, “blsup” and “ComeDeal”. Police say he was relentless, using 100 online aliases with victims believed to be in London and across the UK.

His arrest came after he raped an 18-year-old man in a London park in August 2024. His victim said they had swapped sexual images with someone they believed to be a transgender woman.

A different account then sent them messages from a man demanding money otherwise the explicit photos would be released.

The victim said they could not pay and Saeed coerced him to meet in person, threatening to release the photos if he refused. They met three times late at night where Saeed sexually assaulted and raped the victim. To hide his identity Saeed wore a balaclava, which was found at his Ilford home when police arrested him three months later.

The victim of the rape went to police who examined data from social media accounts used by Saeed to find him, and he was arrested in November 2024.

Two mobile phones discovered at Saeed’s address contained the social media accounts used to target the victims. The devices also showed further victims, as yet unidentifed, including some police believed were children.

• Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting 5335/18JUNE2026.