Former supply teacher jailed for six years after taking hundreds of upskirt photos of children

He pleaded guilty to: 12 counts of taking indecent photographs of children by upskirting, four counts of publishing an obscene article, three counts of making indecent photographs of children, one count of voyeurism and one count of distributing an indecent photograph of a child.

Rahman, a British national of Bangladeshi descent from Salford, exploited 14 girls aged between 13 and 16 from seven different high schools in Greater Manchester.

The pictures were upskirting and voyeurism he covertly took himself in a school setting, or images he lifted from pupils’ social media accounts, using AI to nudify them before posting them online with sexualised comments.

Sentencing the 36-year-old, His Honour Judge Horne, said: "You were a trusted supply teacher and your position of trust gave you access to classrooms. You abused that trust and took photographs of the girls. You used equipment and methods you had searched. It was your ability to teach to a good standard that helped you maintain the trust they [the schools] had put in you.”

Judge Horne added: "You’ve not given up on yourself and I’m not going to give up on you either. I don’t want to pass a sentence that extinguishes all hope for you."

Rahman was arrested in June 2025 after a parent alerted police to concerning material online.

A child from one of the schools he’d worked at found a social media account where he’d been posting pictures of pupils.

The account with the explicit photos had over a thousand followers and Greater Manchester Police say they are looking into those accounts, but no further arrests have been made at this time.

Police found the 36-year-old had hundreds of pictures on his devices, with 226 classed as Category C, 25 Category B, and 12 Category A, the most severe tier of indecent images of children.

In a victim impact statement read out during the sentencing hearing, one girl said: "I feel really disgusted and it upset me."

She added she tries to keep the ordeal private, but she’s reminded by other school children.

Another girl said she felt “embarrassed” and “vulnerable”.

Police say their investigation found no concerns from students when Rahman had his phone out and there were no issues with DBS checks before he was allowed to begin teaching.

Emma Kehoe, defending Rahman, said: "His arrest almost came as a relief. There is nothing in his background to suggest he has been nothing but a good member of society. He found himself out of control and unable to stop."

She also told the sentencing hearing: "He’d spoken to his Imam about the ideas in his head and the advice that was given was to go and get married. He had an arranged marriage, but it didn’t stop the thoughts in his head or his offending."

Detective Sergeant Simon France said the guilty pleas were the result of a “painstaking, thorough investigation”.

He said: "The officers and staff working on this investigation, including our victim identification team, put everything into building a case against Rahman and bringing the charges against him. This included our digital investigation unit which has analysed around 1,000 images over the past year.”

Police have been in contact with all the schools Rahman had worked at since he became a qualified teacher in 2023.

Detective Constable, Lisa McGaffin, added: "These are children who are in schools and meant to be in safe environments where they can go in, and they can learn, and they can sit and talk to their friends, and you just don't expect something like this to happen.

"This individual was put into a position of trust and to look after the welfare of these pupils, and he's taken the opportunity to exploit them in the worst way."

Commenting on the way artificial intelligence was used to create explicit images of young girls, DC McGaffin said: "AI has become part of our lives and very fast, and with that comes its own challenges.It’s the same with any social media platforms we have, the ones that are regulated properly wouldn't allow things like this to happen.

"You wouldn't be allowed to upload images and then download the output. With that comes the unregulated version and the ones which we are unable at the minute to be able to regulate properly, to see what is happening on them.

"I think better regulations around AI technology and AI platforms would at least help somewhat towards being able to ensure that people can't freely do this."

Alexandra Mann, a Senior Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Abusali Rahman abused his position as a teacher to capture images of children without their knowledge in a school environment where they were entitled to feel safe.Rahman also created and shared sexualised deepfake images of pupils on social media which is a gross breach of trust.

"Misuse of emerging technology is a serious crime, and it has had a profound impact on both the victims and wider community. We worked with police to piece together strong evidence from his devices and locations at the time the photos were taken to build a comprehensive picture exposing the extent of his offending.

"I hope this case send a clear message that we will robustly prosecute those who use technology to exploit children."