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

A former supply teacher has been jailed for six years after admitting taking upskirting photos of pupils.

Abusali Rahman used his iPhone in his top pocket while secretly taking upskirting images of teenagers while working in seven schools, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Rahman, from Salford, Greater Manchester, would also follow behind girls walking up stairs to film them. He also traced youngsters' social media profiles to "nudify" their images alongside pornography.

The 37-year-old was caught after the mother of one girl came across a picture of her daughter in her school uniform, next to graphic sexual images while she was scrolling on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

He had also super-imposed one girl's face on a woman wearing a bikini, and another in a PVC suit, the court heard.

At a hearing in May, Rahman pleaded guilty to 12 counts of taking an indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child, obtained by upskirting.

He also admitted four counts of publishing an obscene article, three counts of making indecent photographs/pseudo photographs of a child using AI-generated images, one count of distributing an indecent image of a child and one count of operating equipment beneath clothing to take images of another without their consent.

Rahman's crimes took place over nearly two years between December 2023 and June 2025 against 15 girls, all aged between 13 and 16, at several secondary schools in Bury, Bolton and Salford.

One girl who had been identified through Rahman's use of her social media profile photo suffered comments at school, and told police she felt embarrassed and "weirded out" and another girl was left "disgusted and upset".

Detective Constable Lisa McGaffin of Greater Manchester Police called the case "incredibly worrying", adding that "criminals are using it [AI] in ways we didn't even think would ever happen 12 months ago".

DC McGaffin added: "It's a very, very difficult problem."

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Senior Crown prosecutor, Alexandra Mann, 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."

Sky's chief North of England correspondent, Greg Milam, said that "there are potentially hundreds of children who would have come into contact with Abdul Rahman during the course of his offending".

He added: "Police have said they've been in touch with all of the schools where he worked, and they've been in touch with the children they know to have been affected, the families of the children they know to be affected."

Emma Kehoe, defending Rahman, said: "He knows what he did is horrendous.

"He found himself out of control, and unable to stop.

"He did reach out for help. He went to speak to an Imam, and shared concerns about his thoughts."

Rahman, a British national of Bangladeshi ethnicity, was also put on the Sex Offenders Register, and given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning him from working in schools for 20 years.

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