A teacher who secretly took pictures of students' private areas has been imprisoned.

Richard Lees, a former teacher and rugby coach, has recently been sentenced to two years in prison for his disturbing actions. This 43-year-old man from Cheadle, Greater Manchester, was found guilty of taking upskirting photos of his female pupils and storing indecent images of children and extreme pornography on a school-issued laptop.

It all started in July of 2022 when Lees was arrested for an unrelated offense. However, the police decided not to pursue the matter further. But during their investigation, they came across some alarming evidence. They seized his personal encrypted hard drive and the school-issued laptop and discovered category A images of children and extreme pornography on them. This led to Lees' arrest in September of 2023.

As if that wasn't enough, a further investigation of his encrypted hard drive revealed even more disturbing content. It contained upskirting photos of his female pupils that he had taken while working as a teacher at a school in Macclesfield, Cheshire. And to make matters worse, the police also found videos of women in Lees' home bathroom, unknowingly recorded by him. This led to his second arrest in September of 2024.

In court, Lees denied possessing any of the images, claiming that someone else must have gained access to his devices. However, the evidence against him was overwhelming, and he eventually pleaded guilty to five offenses, including voyeurism, possession of indecent images of children, and possession of extreme pornography. On February 7th, he was sentenced to two years in prison by the Chester Crown Court.

Detective Constable Alison Shields from Cheshire Police commended the courage of the victims for coming forward and speaking up about the voyeurism. She also urged anyone else who may have been a victim of similar crimes to come forward and report it.

But what exactly is upskirting, and can you report it to the police? Upskirting is a serious crime that involves taking indecent images of people without their consent by using cameras to capture images under their skirts. According to the Crown Prosecution Service, there have been 313 prosecutions for upskirting between 2019 and 2022. And a survey conducted by UN Women UK in 2021 revealed that 71% of women in the UK have experienced some form of sexual harassment in public, including having images taken without their consent. This number increases to a shocking 86% for women aged between 18 and 24.

Despite these alarming statistics, very few incidents of upskirting and other forms of voyeurism are reported to the police. The survey found that over 95% of all women who experienced sexual harassment did not report it. The main reasons for this were that they didn't think the incident was serious enough or that reporting it wouldn't make a difference.

But reporting these crimes is essential, as it could prevent it from happening to someone else, and it could also help uncover more serious offenses. If you are in immediate danger or feel that the situation could turn violent, call 999 for emergency assistance. For those with hearing or speech impairments, you can use the textphone service 18000 or text 999 if you have pre-registered with the emergencySMS service.

If it's not an emergency, you can report upskirting and other voyeurism offenses by calling 101 or by going to a police station. You can also make a report online through their website.

In the words of Detective Constable Alison Shields, "Lees held a position of trust and should have been someone children could go to for support. Instead, he was hiding a twisted secret. He even had the audacity to store some of the indecent images of children on a school-issued laptop. Thankfully, his shocking crimes were uncovered, and our officers worked tirelessly to gather evidence and bring him to justice. I hope this will also encourage anyone who may have been a victim of similar offenses to come forward and report it to us."

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