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High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

Greater Manchester: former supply teacher jailed for six years; prosecutors say he used AI to make sexualised images of pupils from their social media photos

A former supply teacher who worked at secondary schools in Greater Manchester was jailed for six years at Bolton Crown Court on 15 October 2026 after pleading guilty to 21 offences, including publishing obscene material and taking indecent photographs of children. The Crown Prosecution Service says he used his position to find pupils' details, located their social media profiles and used AI to create sexualised images from their own photos, which he shared on social media; the BBC reports some were posted on X. Parents reported two accounts to police in March 2025. The court heard that one girl whose photograph had been used was left embarrassed. His offending also included more than 100 covert upskirt photographs taken in schools. The AI tool is not named.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
15 October 2026
Event location
United Kingdom
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or AbusePsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Privacy · Education · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources
6 claims: 1 corroborated, 5 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 1 person

AI system as recorded: AI technology used to create sexualised images from pupils' social media photographs, as the Crown Prosecution Service describes it (tool not identified)

What Happened

The AI images. According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the former supply teacher, who had worked at schools and colleges in north-west England since 2022, used his position to find information about pupils so that he could locate them on social media and use their own photos to create sexualised images with AI. Officers who seized his devices found deepfake images in which images of teenage children had been put onto the bodies of adults or placed alongside adults engaged in sexual activity. He kept files recording female pupils' names and addresses for this purpose, and police found searches on his phone about creating images with AI. The BBC reports that some of the images were posted on X, where one of his accounts had about 1,000 followers.

Discovery. The CPS says police received several reports from concerned parents on 2 March 2025 about two social media accounts where they had seen images of school pupils. The BBC reports that he was caught when the mother of one girl found an image of her daughter in school uniform next to graphic sexual images on X.

Effect on the pupils. The court heard that one girl whose social media photograph had been used was left embarrassed and 'weirded out', and that another felt 'disgusted and upset'. The senior crown prosecutor said the offending had a profound impact on the victims and the wider community. Because some of the girls were taking GCSE exams, detectives left it to parents to decide whether to tell their children.

Other offending. He also took more than 100 covert upskirt photographs of schoolgirls, including in classrooms. The court heard that 15 girls aged 13 to 16 at seven secondary schools were targeted across his offending, of whom police had identified 12; the sources do not say how many of them were depicted in the AI images.

Outcome. He pleaded guilty on 28 May 2026 to 21 offences, including four counts of publishing an obscene article. On 15 October 2026 Bolton Crown Court jailed him for six years and imposed a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning him from working in schools.

What is not established. Neither source names the AI tool, says when the AI images were made or how long they were online, or says how many pupils were depicted in them.

Reported harm

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, a supply teacher used AI to make sexualised images of teenage pupils from their social media photos and shared them online; the court heard that one girl whose photo was used was left embarrassed.

Outcome

Resolved

The defendant pleaded guilty at Bolton Crown Court on 28 May 2026 to 21 offences, including four counts of publishing an obscene article and counts of taking and making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child and one upskirting offence. On 15 October 2026 he was jailed for six years, placed on the sex offenders register and given a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order that bars him from working in schools.

What remains unknown

  • Which AI tool was used and when the AI images were made
  • How many pupils were depicted in the AI images, as distinct from the upskirt photographs
  • How long the images stayed online, who saw them and whether the platform removed them

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The Crown Prosecution Service, which prosecuted the case to a guilty plea, says the defendant used pupils' own social media photos to create sexualised images using AI technology, and that officers found deepfake images on his seized devices placing teenage children onto adults' bodies or alongside sexual activity; police also found his searches about creating images with AI. The BBC court report says he used AI to make sexualised fake images from pupils' photographs and shared them online. The AI output is itself the sexual depiction of the pupils (depicted_or_impersonated). The tool is not named.

6 claims: 1 corroborated, 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the defendant used his position as a teacher to find pupils' details, located them on social media and used AI to create sexualised images from their own photos; officers found deepfake images in which teenage children had been put onto adults' bodies or alongside adults engaged in sexual activity.

Causal attribution. Prosecution account after a guilty plea; the BBC's narrative matches it but may draw on the same CPS statement, so the claim is treated as one origin.

  • cps.gov.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'used his position as a teacher to find information about pupils so he could locate them on social media and use their own photos to create sexualised images using AI technology'; 'Officers found deepfake images where the image of teenage children had been put onto the body of adults or alongside adults engaging in sexual activity.'
  • bbc.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'used artificial intelligence (AI) to create sexualised fake images from pupils' social media photographs which he shared online'
Reported The images were shared on social media; the BBC reports some were posted on X, where one of the defendant's accounts had about 1,000 followers.

Causal attribution. BBC report and the senior crown prosecutor's statement; the X detail and follower count come from the BBC only.

Reported Police received several reports from concerned parents on 2 March 2025 about two social media accounts showing images of school pupils; the BBC reports a girl's mother found an image of her daughter in school uniform next to graphic sexual images on X.

Causal attribution. How the offending was discovered; context.

  • cps.gov.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'On 2 March 2025, police received several reports from concerned parents about two social media accounts where they had seen images of school pupils.'
  • bbc.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'came across an image of her daughter in her school uniform next to graphic sexual images'
Reported The court heard that one girl whose social media photograph had been used was left embarrassed and 'weirded out', and the senior crown prosecutor said the offending had a profound impact on the victims and the wider community.

Causal attribution. Victim impact as heard in court and as the prosecutor describes it.

  • bbc.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The court heard one girl whose social media photograph had been used was left embarrassed and "weirded out", while another felt "disgusted and upset".'
  • cps.gov.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'it has had a profound impact on both the victims and wider community'
Corroborated The defendant pleaded guilty at Bolton Crown Court in May 2026 to 21 offences, including publishing obscene material, and on 15 October 2026 was jailed for six years with a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order barring him from working in schools.

Causal attribution. The plea and sentence as reported from court by the BBC and stated by the prosecuting authority.

  • bbc.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'He pleaded guilty to 21 offences, including taking indecent photographs of children and publishing obscene material.'; '20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning him from working in schools'
  • cps.gov.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'was jailed at Bolton Crown Court, for six years and was made the subject of a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order to prevent further offending'; 'pleaded guilty at Bolton Crown Court on 28 May 2026'; '4 counts of publishing an obscene article'
Reported The defendant also took more than 100 covert upskirt photographs of schoolgirls, including in classrooms; the court heard 15 girls were targeted across the offending and police had identified 12.

Causal attribution. Non-AI offending in the same prosecution; context for the counts.

  • bbc.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'taking more than 100 upskirt photographs of schoolgirls, including in his classroom'; 'The court heard 15 girls, aged 13 to 16, were targeted at seven secondary schools in Bolton, Bury and Salford. Police said 12 had been identified.'

Sources

2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-16 (HTTP 200). BBC court report of the 15 October 2026 sentencing, quoting the prosecutor, the judge, the defence and Greater Manchester Police; it also quotes the CPS statement. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-16 (HTTP 200). Crown Prosecution Service North West press release of 15 October 2026. Applies to s2.

Event countries: United Kingdom. Affected-person countries: United Kingdom. Court countries: United Kingdom.

Event and affected people: the BBC reports the targeted girls attended seven secondary schools in Bolton, Bury and Salford, Greater Manchester, where the defendant worked. Court: Bolton Crown Court.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-16: Published on the prosecuting authority's account after a guilty plea: the Crown Prosecution Service says the former supply teacher used AI to create sexualised images from pupils' social media photos and shared them, and officers found the deepfake images on his devices; the BBC court report says the same and that a girl whose photo was used was left embarrassed. The plea and sentence are reported by both. The pupils are minors and are not identified; the defendant is not named because his name adds nothing to the record.

People described

Teenage schoolgirls at secondary schools in Greater Manchester whose social media photographs were made into sexualised AI images and shared online; the court heard that at least one girl whose photograph was used was left embarrassed

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.

At least one pupil whose social media photograph was used is described as embarrassed (claim c4, BBC court report). The CPS refers to victims in the plural and the court heard that 15 girls were targeted across all the offending, but the sources do not say how many were depicted in AI images, so further victims are unquantified. The pupils did not use the AI.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#ai-sexualised-images#non-consensual-sexual-imagery#school-staff#social-media#guilty-plea#sentencing#england#united-kingdom

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Greater Manchester: former supply teacher jailed for six years; prosecutors say he used AI to make sexualised images of pupils from their social media photos. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-greater-manchester-former-supply-teacher-jailed-over-ai-sexualised-images-of-pupils-and-upskirting

BibTeX

@misc{2025_greater_manchester_former_supply_teacher_jailed_over_ai_sexualised_images_of_pupils_and_upskirting,
  title = {Greater Manchester: former supply teacher jailed for six years; prosecutors say he used AI to make sexualised images of pupils from their social media photos},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-greater-manchester-former-supply-teacher-jailed-over-ai-sexualised-images-of-pupils-and-upskirting}
}

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