A man who groomed and blackmailed 70 children online by posing as a teenage boy has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Bilal Kazi, 27, used social media platforms including Snapchat and Roblox to target victims as young as 11, pressuring them into sharing sexual images and videos.
How the Offending Unfolded
Kazi contacted his victims through social media, pretending to be a teenage boy named "Reece." Using photographs of an unidentified boy, he quickly groomed victims into believing they were in a genuine relationship with him. Once he gained their trust, he began requesting sexually explicit images and videos, manipulating the girls into thinking sharing such content was normal.
His demands soon escalated, with victims pressured into recording themselves performing sexual acts. When victims refused, Kazi threatened to share the images and videos they had already sent him. These threats left victims feeling frightened and intimidated, and some continued to engage with him out of fear. In some cases, Kazi maintained contact with his victims for more than a year, deceiving them into believing they were in a relationship with someone entirely different.
Investigation and Arrest
The investigation into Kazi, an Indian national, was taken on by Cheshire Constabulary's online child abuse investigation team in May 2022 after one victim reported the abuse to Derbyshire Police. The victim said she began speaking to Kazi on Snapchat when she was 13, believing him to be the same age. Their conversations quickly turned sexual, with Kazi asking inappropriate questions and requesting naked images and videos.
In July 2021, the victim told Kazi she only wanted to be friends. In response, he became abusive, calling her names and claiming she was his property. He then threatened to distribute the photos and videos she had shared with him to her friends unless she obeyed his demands. Shortly afterwards, the victim's Snapchat account was hacked, and the content was sent to her friends. She reported Kazi to Derbyshire Police in November 2021.
The case was transferred to Cheshire Constabulary after enquiries established that Kazi's last known address was in Chester. However, he had left the area, and his whereabouts were unknown. He was circulated as wanted while enquiries continued. It was later established that Kazi had left the country. He was arrested on his return to the UK at Heathrow Airport in July 2023 and was interviewed in relation to the allegations.
Scale of Offending and Sentencing
Kazi's mobile phone was seized and examined by the force's digital forensics unit. The examination uncovered evidence of what investigators believe to be the largest network of offending ever encountered by the online investigation team. Officers identified 180 potential victims, and 70 victims, aged between 11 and 17 at the time of the offending, were identified across 28 of the UK's 45 police forces.
Kazi, whose last address was Hubert Croft in Birmingham, was charged with 39 offences relating to offending between August 2021 and August 2025. He pleaded guilty to 37 charges, with two left to lie on file. He was also charged by West Midlands Police with a further eight offences committed while on police bail for the Cheshire investigation. The charges include causing a child aged 13-15 to engage in penetrative sexual activity, blackmail, and making indecent images of children.
He was sentenced on Friday to 30 years in prison with an additional eight years extended licence period to reflect his dangerousness to the public.
Cheshire Constabulary's Detective Constable Georgia Hughes said: "There is a misconception that online offences have less impact on victims than crimes committed in person, but that could not be further from the truth." She added that the girls targeted by Kazi were young and vulnerable, and his offending has had a profound and lasting impact on the victims.
Detective Sergeant Ross Peel said: "Victims should never feel ashamed of what they have experienced. The responsibility for these offences lies solely with the offender, and we want anyone who has been subjected to this kind of abuse to know that they will be listened to, supported and taken seriously." He also urged parents to speak to their children and take an interest in the apps and platforms they are using, noting that the potential for online offending is vast.
