Alaric Bristow: Former teacher tricks hundreds of children into performing sex acts and sending indecent images

Former science teacher posed as teenage girl on social media to deceive pupils

A former teacher who tricked more than 200 pupils into performing sex acts by posing online as a teenage girl has pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges.

Alaric Bristow set up fake social media profiles to talk to the boys, aged between 13 and 15, and collected more than 1,000 indecent images of them.

He pleaded guilty to 12 charges of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, nine of making indecent images of children and one of having prohibited images.

Judge Peter Cooke sentenced Bristow to five years in prison and said he must serve at least three.

He had targeted a total of 213 boys and many of the victims had been his pupils, the judge said.

The former teacher, who worked at schools in the Midlands, will also have to register as a sex offender for life.

“You were leading a double life, imparting knowledge during the day, but leading a dark secret life at night,” Mr Cooke said.

“I am satisfied there is a significant risk that you will commit further specified offences in the future and cause serious harm to members of the public, most likely young people.”

The court was told how West Midlands Police raided Bristow’s home, where he lived with his mother and brothers, last September after receiving information of suspicious internet activity.

Police officers were shocked to find a huge quantity of indecent images on his laptop and hard drive, along with the method he had used to obtain them.

Bristow kept meticulous records of the names of the boys, the false profiles he used when contacting them and the images he had sent and received.

He also created PowerPoint presentation “trophies” of his achievements, the court heard.

The former teacher admitted to creating the fake profiles to obtain images and videos of his victims but claimed he had never met or had any intention of having physical contact with any of the boys.

Detective Constable Ian Russell, from West Midlands Police's Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team, said: “Even after his initial arrest, Bristow could not abstain from his deviant behaviour and breached his bail conditions by obtaining a laptop and accessing the internet to continue offending.

“As a school teacher he was in a position of trust and should have known the devastating emotional effect this type of abuse can have on young people.”

Prosecutor John O’Higgins praised police for the “enormous investigation", which involved 20 specialist officers at one stage to trace all the boys involved.

Agencies contributed to this report