A paedophile maths teacher who used fake social media identities to groom and rape schoolgirls has been jailed for 25 years.
Syed Shahreear Ahmed, 37, posed as a 17-year-old boy called Miles and used doctored photographs to target vulnerable girls aged between 13 and 16. He lured them with promises of gifts, money and romantic relationships before arranging meetings across the country.
Ahmed was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to a further ten years in custody, to be served consecutively to the 15-year term he was already serving. He will also spend eight years on licence.
He has now been convicted of 56 child sexual abuse offences involving 18 victims. Judge Perrins said Ahmed remained a danger to the public and added that he would have imposed a life sentence if all the offences had been dealt with at the same time.
The judge told him: “You understood teenagers well. You were skilled at spotting those whose insecurities could be manipulated to serve your own sexual desires.”
He said Ahmed had targeted girls who were “lonely, isolated and suffered from low self-esteem”, adding that the teacher had “preyed upon it”.
The court heard that Ahmed, who taught at a secondary school in Essex, used Wizz, Yubo and Snapchat to contact girls. He operated at least three Snapchat accounts, altered his identity when girls became suspicious and used location-sharing tools to find out where they lived.
Detective Constable Adam Conibeere described the online grooming as relentless. “It was just constant. It was nonstop,” he said.
Ahmed sometimes arranged to meet several girls on the same day. He would change meeting points at short notice and watch from a distance, which investigators believe was a way of checking whether the girls were alone.
Five girls involved in his second trial were persuaded to meet him in person. He drove them to secluded locations including woodland, an empty flat, a summerhouse and isolated car parks.
One 15-year-old was repeatedly raped in remote woodland after Ahmed threatened her with consequences if she told anyone. He later took her to a summerhouse at his family home, where he put his hand around her neck before raping her.
Another 15-year-old was raped in the back of Ahmed’s car after travelling to Cambridge to meet the person she believed was a teenage boy. He gave her £20 and later threatened to send someone to confront her parents when she refused to see him again. He was convicted of blackmail in connection with those messages.
Investigation uncovered wider campaign
The case came to light after another teenager became frightened when she realised Ahmed was much older than he had claimed. She escaped from his moving car and gave police its registration number, helping officers identify him.
Ahmed was arrested in May 2023 after police established that he was insured to drive the vehicle. He refused to provide the passwords or PINs for his devices and answered no comment during interviews.
As officers examined the devices, the investigation expanded across several police force areas. Detectives reconstructed years of messages, photographs, videos and location data, finding evidence that Ahmed had groomed numerous girls at the same time.
Investigators examined hundreds of gigabytes of digital material and thousands of photographs. In one case, they used a victim’s memories of a bridge and distinctive graffiti beneath the A12 to identify the remote place where she had been raped, without requiring her to return there.
Police also used details visible in photographs, including school uniforms, road signs and other background objects, to help identify victims. Officers believe images found on Ahmed’s devices may show a further 20 to 30 girls, although they do not know whether all were underage or had been abused.
“There are images on his phone of other girls in his car, or in a wooded area, or at an address that we don’t know where it is that appear to be 16 or under, and we have no way of identifying who they are,” DC Conibeere said.
The court heard that Ahmed had completed safeguarding training covering grooming, vulnerable children and the abuse of positions of trust. There was no evidence that he had abused pupils at the school where he worked.
Judge Perrins condemned Ahmed’s lack of remorse, saying: “You have failed to take any responsibility for your actions and you have shown absolutely no remorse.”
Ahmed continued to deny much of the offending and claimed police had manipulated the victims’ accounts, officers said. During the proceedings he repeatedly shouted out, causing the judge to remove the jury on several occasions, and represented himself for part of the second trial.
The impact on his victims was described in statements read to the court. One said she suffered nightmares and felt unable to trust even male members of her family, while another said she had dropped out of college and was struggling to find work.
Other victims described flashbacks, sleepless nights and difficulty eating. Some have needed antidepressants, counselling and continuing support.
A woman who helped one of the girls speak to police urged parents to take an interest in their children’s online lives. “I would just say to be aware of who your children are talking to, what apps they’ve got on their phones,” she said.
