Upskirting supply teacher who 'abused' trust in Manchester jailed for six years

• ITV News Granada Reports Correspondent Ann O'Connor was in Bolton Crown Court.

A former supply teacher who took classroom upskirting photos of schoolgirls and created sexualised deepfake images has been jailed for six years.

Abusali Rahman, from Salford, used his iPhone to secretly take upskirting images of teenagers while working as a supply teacher in seven high schools in the North West, Bolton Crown Court heard.

The court heard his victims were 15 girls, all aged between 13 and 16, who were pupils at the different high schools in Bury, Bolton, and Salford.

Rahman, 37, was only caught when the mother of one girl was scrolling on X and came across an image of her daughter in her school uniform, next to graphic sexual images.

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

Sentencing Rahman for six years, Judge Kenderik Horne told the defendant: "You were a trusted supply teacher, your position of trust gave you access to schools and classrooms, you were trusted to be in close proximity to school girls.

"You abused that trust. You posted images of girls from your schools wearing school uniforms alongside graphic images of sexual activity".

Rahman was first investigated after a parent spotted her daughter's image in March 2025 and the girl's school and police were notified.

Police arrested the defendant and his phone and other devices were seized.

He was re-arrested when police discovered child sexual abuse images, including 226 category C images, such as the upskirting ones he had taken of girls in classrooms and school corridors, Tom Farr, prosecuting, told the court.

They also found 25 category B images and 12 category A images, the latter being images he had downloaded from the internet.

Detectives used geo-location techniques to pin-point classrooms where offences took place, along with school uniform identification to locate victims.

The defendant, a British national who holds a joint UK-Bangladeshi nationality, qualified as a teacher specialising in English after studying at Manchester Metropolitan University.

He gained his teaching degree in July 2023 and by December of the same year he had began offending against girls until his arrest in June 2025, the court heard.

Rahman worked as a supply teacher at 25 different schools across the North West.

Emma Kehoe, defending Rahman, said it was not the prosecution's case that he became a teacher simply to prey on girls.

She added: "He knows what he did is horrendous.

"It was through his religious education that led to him studying and becoming a teacher.

"The reality is, his arrest came as a relief, because there’s nothing in his background to suggest he’s been anything other than a good member of society, father, husband and son.

“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".

Alexandra Mann, a Senior Crown Prosecutor 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".

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