BREAKING: An Indian student who used the internet to groom and exploit 70 girls from across the UK has been jailed for at least 30 years with eight years on licence.

Sky’s @ShingiMararike is in Chester and has the details on Bilal Kazi’s crimes.

https://t.co/PUEm0RADdb https://t.co/ydGrrLaGEX

— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 13, 2026

An Indian man has been jailed following Cheshire Constabulary’s largest investigation into online child sexual abuse.

Bilal Kazi appeared at Chester Crown Court today, Friday 13 November, where he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, followed by an additional eight years on extended licence.

The 27-year-old of Hubert Croft, Birmingham, had previously pleaded guilty to 37 charges of child sexual offences.

The investigation into Kazi’s offending was taken over by officers from Cheshire Constabulary’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team (OCAIT) in May 2022, after one of his victims reported the abuse she had suffered to Derbyshire Police.

The victim explained that she began speaking to Kazi on Snapchat when she was 13, believing him to be the same age. Their conversations quickly turned sexual in nature, with Kazi asking the victim a number of inappropriate questions.

Kazi’s behaviour escalated, and he began requesting naked images and videos from the victim. Over a short time, those requests became increasingly frequent and persistent.

In July 2021, the victim told Kazi that she only wanted to be friends and no longer wished to send him images. In response, Kazi became abusive, calling her names and claiming that she was his property. He then threatened to distribute the photos and videos she had previously shared with him to her friends unless she obeyed his demands.

Fearing Kazi’s threats, the victim felt compelled to continue sending him explicit images and videos.

Shortly afterwards, the victim’s Snapchat account was hacked and the content she had shared with Kazi was sent to her friends. She subsequently reported Kazi to Derbyshire Police in November 2021.

The case was later transferred to Cheshire Constabulary after enquiries established that Kazi’s last known address was in Chester. However, checks revealed that he had since left the area and his whereabouts were unknown. He was then circulated as wanted while enquiries to trace him 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 made by the first victim.

His mobile phone was subsequently seized and examined by the force’s Digital Forensics Unit (DFU). The examination uncovered evidence of what investigators believe to be the largest network of offending ever encountered by OCAIT.

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