Man Sentenced in London for Blackmailing and Raping Closeted Gay Muslims

On June 19, 2026, a court in London sentenced 31-year-old Waleed Saeed to 16 years in prison for a series of rapes and blackmail. According to the police, dozens of young men from Muslim families or South Asian backgrounds were victims of his actions. Saeed — a British man of Somali descent who is gay himself — deliberately targeted victims who were hiding their sexual orientation, believing they would be afraid to go to the police.

Since 2018, Saeed created fake profiles on Snapchat, Instagram, and Grindr, posing as white women or transgender women. In this way, he obtained intimate photos of young men, some of whom were only 15 years old. He would then reveal his true identity and demand money, threatening to send the images to their families and friends.

If the victims could not pay, Saeed forced them to meet him at night in London parks, where he would sexually assault and rape them while hiding his face under a mask. During sentencing, the judge noted that the perpetrator deliberately exploited the cultural attitudes of Muslim communities, where homosexuality is often condemned, making the young men particularly vulnerable to threats of exposure.

Saeed pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including rape, blackmail, and making indecent images of children. The police began their investigation in August 2024 following a report of rape in a park. By examining the perpetrator’s phones, investigators uncovered a large network of fake accounts and found evidence of many similar crimes committed since 2018.

Saeed’s case has caused public resonance against the backdrop of a recent report on sexual crimes in the UK. On June 16, 2026, independent MP Rupert Lowe, leader of the Restore Britain party, published a report claiming that organized grooming gangs consisting predominantly of Pakistani Muslims have been raping white British girls for decades. Lowe’s report faced sharp criticism: the Police Service of Northern Ireland stated there was no evidence of such gangs operating in the claimed areas, and experts accused the author of starting with preconceived conclusions aimed against migration and Islam. Against this background, some commentators pointed out that the London police acted quickly in Saeed’s case, where the victims were Muslims, while the police questioned the findings of Lowe’s report about crimes against white girls.