Police traced the images to a teacher and arrested Rahman
Supply teacher Abusali Rahman has been jailed for six years for secretly taking “upskirting” photos of teenage girls at seven schools across Greater Manchester and sharing them on social media.
The 37-year-old targeted at least 15 girls aged between 13 and 16 over an 18-month period, using a mobile phone concealed in his pocket to capture the images without their knowledge or consent.
The former English teacher committed the offences while working at secondary schools in Bury, Bolton and Salford, with some photographs taken as pupils walked up staircases in front of him and others inside classrooms.
Rahman had worked as a supply teacher at 25 schools before his arrest. He later uploaded the images to an account on X which had approximately 1,000 followers.
His offending came to light in March 2025, and after he was arrested, Rahman pleaded guilty to 21 child sex offences.
At Bolton Crown Court, he was sentenced to six years in prison and made subject to a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order intended to prevent further offending.
How a Parent exposed his Crimes
Within months of starting work as a supply teacher in September 2023, Rahman began secretly taking photos of pupils.
At least 15 girls had been targeted across seven high schools over approximately 18 months. Police said the pupils would have had no idea they were being photographed.
Rahman’s offending came to light in March 2025 when a parent discovered an image of her daughter’s friend wearing her school uniform on X and alerted the authorities.
Police traced the images to a teacher and arrested Rahman, whose electronic devices were subsequently found to contain hundreds of indecent images of children.
When detectives interviewed Rahman about the images, he repeatedly responded “no comment”.
However, footage released following his sentencing shows him beginning to cry when an interviewing officer asks how he would feel if his own child were targeted in the same way.
A search of his electronic devices uncovered 226 category C indecent images of children, 25 category B images and 12 category A images, the latter representing the most explicit category.
Rahman admitted 21 counts, which included:
- 12 counts of taking an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child.
- 4 counts of publishing an obscene article.
- 3 counts of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child.
- 1 count of distributing an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child.
- 1 count of operating equipment beneath another person’s clothing without consent.
His offending also involved the creation of AI-generated explicit images.
At a previous hearing in May, his barrister, Emma Kehoe, said he had been “going through a mental health crisis at the time”.
Police confirmed that the schools involved and the parents of identified victims had been informed.
However, officers have been unable to establish the identities of three girls whose images were discovered during the investigation. Parents have been left to decide whether to tell their children that they were among those targeted.
AI Images raise Concerns
Detective Constable Lisa McGaffin of Greater Manchester Police condemned Rahman’s actions and the abuse of his professional position.
She said: “This man became involved in the indecent images of children almost as soon as he became a teacher.
“They have been exploited by someone in a position of trust and we are horrified at what has happened.”
Detective Inspector Dan Appleby, also of Greater Manchester Police, described Rahman’s offending as “brazen” and “done in plain sight”.
The case has also raised concerns about the use of artificial intelligence to produce sexualised images of children.
Police described Rahman’s use of AI to create additional explicit images as “incredibly worrying”, pointing to gaps in legislation that can make such offences more difficult to tackle.
AI image-generation tools can be used to transform photographs of fully clothed individuals, including school pupils and teachers, into realistic-looking nude images.
Concerns have grown over the availability of free applications that allow users to create such material without the subjects’ consent.
Rahman’s sentence and the 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order mark the outcome of an investigation into the exploitation of pupils by a teacher entrusted with their education and welfare.
