A supply teacher who secretly took photographs up teenage girls’ skirts while working in seven different schools and posted the images on social media has been jailed for six years. Within months of starting work as an English teacher, Abusali Rahman, 37, began ‘brazenly’ using a mobile phone poking out of his pocket to capture ‘upskirting’ images of at least 15 pupils, in some cases following them as they walked upstairs.
The married father then posted them on an account on X – formerly Twitter – with 1,000 followers, ultimately proving his downfall, a court heard today. A mother noticed an image of her daughter’s friend in her school uniform on the site and raised the alarm, with police quickly tracing the footage had been taken by a teacher. Interviewed by detectives, Rahman repeatedly replied ‘no comment’ when asked about the images on his mobile phone.
But video released following his sentencing shows the sex offender’s arrogant façade crumbling when the interviewing officer asks how he would feel if his own child was targeted in that way, and he begins sobbing.
Following an investigation into upskirting and voyeurism, officers established that 15 girls aged between 13 and 16 at seven high schools across Greater Manchester were targeted by Rahman over an 18-month period. In all the identified cases, their schools – in Bury, Bolton and Salford – and parents have been informed.
Officers identified 13 girls aged between 13 and 16 at seven high schools across Greater Manchester who were allegedly targeted by Abusali Rahman
However officers have not been able to establish the names of three girls.
The former teacher pleaded guilty to 21 child sex offences at a previous hearing, some of them involving creating AI-generated images.
At Bolton Crown Court he was today also made subject of a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order to prevent further offending
British-born Rahman, who has dual Bangladeshi nationality, graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a teaching degree in July 2023.
The following September he started work as a supply teacher, covering lessons at 25 schools before his arrest.
But later that term he began secretly taking pictures of girls using a mobile phone tucked into his pocket.
‘This man became involved in the indecent images of children almost as soon as he became a teacher,’ said Detective Constable Lisa McGaffin of Greater Manchester Police.
‘They have been exploited by someone in a position of trust and we are horrified at what has happened.’
Some were taken as girls walked up flights of stairs in front of him, others in the classroom.
Rahman then uploaded them onto an X profile with around 1,000 followers.
The alarm was raised in March 2025 when a parent spotted an image of her daughter’s friend, and he was arrested.
Analysis of his devices uncovered 226 category C images, 25 of category B and 12 of category A, the most explicit.
Rahman has never explained his actions to detectives but at a previous hearing in May his barrister Emma Kehoe said he had been ‘going through a mental health crisis at the time’.
He admitted 12 counts of taking an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, four counts of publishing an obscene article, three counts of making indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, one count of distributing an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, and one count of operating equipment beneath clothing of another without consent, known as upskirting.
Police say none of the girls they have identified as victims would have had any idea they were targeted.
But Detective Inspector Dan Appleby, of Greater Manchester Police, told the Daily Mail that Rahman’s offences were ‘brazen’ and ‘done in plain sight’.
Officers have left the girls’ parents to decide whether to let them know they were among the pupils preyed on by Rahman.
Police say Rahman’s use of AI to create additional explicit images is ‘incredibly worrying’, and harder to tackle due to gaps in legislation.
Experts last year warned of ‘a massive explosion’ in boys – some as young as 13 – using free AI programs to create lifelike fake nude images of fellow pupils.
The apps can turn fully clothed photos of classmates – as well as teachers – into realistic-looking explicit nude images.
They are thought to now be in use in ‘every classroom’ and teenage pupils have already been convicted of creating and sharing the images.