"I want £1,000 a month... or pictures will be posted": Twisted conman, 30, targeted women of Muslim heritage threatening to post sexual images of them online in horrific campaign
14.08.2022 - 13:35
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Two women have described how they were 'trapped by shame' after being taken in by a conman who led them to believe he would marry them. Zeashan Mahmood faked the possibility of a future before blackmailing them into handing over more than £80,000.
Married Mahmood, 30, from Preston, coerced the women into sending sexual images of themselves, which he said he would send to their family and friends if they did not pay up. He then posted them onto a porn website, with degrading captions and encouraged other users to share them around. “I started to believe the names he called me”, one victim said.
“It got so bad I would walk past people in the street and feel they knew what he had said about me.” The woman, who lives locally, said the threats left her feeling so scared she started to sleep with CCTV on. “I felt trapped, with no way out”, she said. “I couldn’t tell anyone because it was so shameful.”
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The other victim, who lives in New York, said she was in survival mode and relapsed into self-harm. The twisted blackmailer made rape threats to her and her sisters and left her feeling that suicide was her only option, reports LancsLive.
But Mahmood told her: “Killing yourself isn’t an option. You do that and I’m coming for your family. I want £1,000 a month from you. If you don’t do that, pictures will be posted.”
Sentencing Mahmood to seven years and three months in prison, Judge Heather Lloyd said Mahmood targeted the women, who were of Muslim heritage, knowing that his threats would bring shame upon them. One victim was especially vulnerable as she has autism and dyspraxia. Over five years she handed over more than £65,000 to Mahmood