An Indian-origin man who groomed at least 70 girls and coerced them to send sexually explicit videos and images of themselves was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United Kingdom.
An Indian-origin man who groomed at least 70 girls and coerced them to send sexually explicit videos and images of themselves was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United Kingdom. 27-year-old Bilal Kazi targeted his victims, who were between the ages of 10 and 17, using social media apps like Snapchat, Wink and even Roblox.
According to the authorities, he committed the crimes between August 2021 and August 2025. Kazi, who came from India, was studying at the University of Chester. According to the BBC, he posed as a 14-year-old White British teenage boy and made his victims believe that he was in a relationship with them. He was eventually jailed after pleading guilty to 37 charges, including making indecent images, blackmail and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
The court ruled that Kazi must serve a minimum of 20 years in prison before being eligible for parole and will be on the sex offenders register for life. Once he is eligible for parole, he will be on licence for eight years. In a personal impact statement read out at Chester Crown Court earlier, one victim said she had struggled with anxiety as Kazi, who later moved to Birmingham, had “taken away a sense of privacy and security,” BBC reported.
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“I am doing my best to move forward, but the effects are still with me,” she said. “The harm caused is not limited to the time events took place – they continue to affect my daily life.” The court also heard that some of the victims had attempted suicide, struggled with anxiety and developed eating disorders. One victim, who was 13 years old when Kazi first contacted her, said he took her “innocence away”. “I hope one day I can get on with my life,” she said.
About the case
According to the BBC, the court heard that Kazi often used the fake name “Reece” and provided a fake photograph of a boy, who has not been identified, to aid deception. He would also demand that they send him progressively more intimate content.
The court heard that if any of the victims were reluctant to send images, he would tell them, “This is what people do when they love each other”. If victims still refused, he would threaten to leak the images that had already been sent to him or the ones he recorded without consent. Not only that, but in some cases Kazi also hacked into victims’ social media accounts, shared the content with their friends and published the pictures on social media.
In one of the screenshots of the chats, the victim was seen saying she felt “uncomfortable” sharing explicit photographs of herself, adding: “I don’t want to do it again.” Kazi replied: “That’s fine with me” before revealing to the victim that he had a secret “backup” of images she had already sent him.
In a separate exchange with a victim on Snapchat, Kazi posed as “Reece” to ask for photographs of a victim in her underwear. He then sent a follow-up message asking the victim to share her live location with him on the app. According to the BBC, the investigation first began in 2021 after a victim came forward to Derbyshire Police.
In May 2022, the same investigation was passed to Cheshire Constabulary, which said 180 possible victims had been identified in the initial investigation. Kazi had left Chester – and the university - but was later arrested at Heathrow Airport when he was re-entering the country on 21 July 2023. His case went on till July 2026; he was subsequently charged with 39 offences and pleaded guilty to 37 of the charges, with two left to lie on the file.