This Married physics teacher Zahid Akram, 37, pictured below reportedly posed as a boy online and persuaded schoolgirls and young women to send him explicit pictures.
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| Zahid Akram |
Father-of-two would persuade his victims to send him pictures in their underwear and then threaten to forward them on to their family if they did not send more.
Detectives believe Akram may have contacted hundreds of youngsters on Badoo while posing as a schoolboy.
The teacher was warned he faces a long spell behind bars by a judge at Exeter Crown Court after he admitted four charges of blackmail and one of causing or inciting a child aged 13-17 to prostitution or pornography.
Police believe there are victims in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and in England – but none south of Bristol because Akram was employed as a science teacher at Woodroffe School in Lyme Regis, Dorset.
Officers said his demands were about ‘empowerment rather than sexual gratification’. Akram had a dozen different profiles on Badoo he used to coerce his victims into handing over pictures.
Judge Francis Gilbert QC refused Akram, of Redditch, Worcestershire, bail and said: ‘He knew perfectly well what he was doing. What he was doing was extremely nasty.
‘He persuaded a number of young girls to take off their clothes and show themselves wearing their underwear, bra and knickers.’
The judge said in one case he told a schoolgirl he knew the Christian names of her parents and would show them the pictures unless she sent more sexualised images.
‘It put appalling pressure on her. It is a vile offence,’ the judge said. ‘He is an intelligent man, a teacher, he must have known what he was doing. It was appalling behaviour.’
Detective Constable Steve Harris, of Devon and Cornwall Police who investigated the case, said Akram blackmailed vulnerable girls and young women aged between 13 and 30.
Abuse: Akram, 37, was warned he faces a lengthy spell behind bars when he is sentenced at Exeter Crown Court (pictured) next month
‘I think there are hundreds of victims he has contacted. They are aged between 13 and 30 and they live all other the UK, in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and from Bristol upwards,’ he said.
‘He approached them online using Badoo and other social networking sites. He had at least twelve profiles, mostly young males but one was as a woman.
‘He was getting them to take a picture of themselves, with say no top on. Once he got that he then asked them to so other things that they did not want to do. It was an increase in sexualisation.
‘If they refused he threatened to show the pictures to friends and family or post them online. In some cases he demanded money from them – £20 or £40 to use to top up his phone. It wasn’t a vast amount of money but these were vulnerable victims.
‘He was blackmailing these women. His demands were about empowerment rather than sexual gratification. He had very little control over his life at work or at home.
‘He also had £40,000 debts and he was not very good with money. He needed some way of taking control and this is what he ended up doing.
‘He has no previous convictions. The matter came to us because one of the victims contacted police. She was being blackmailed and bravely came forward.
‘We traced him and seized his computer equipment and realised there were a lot of people to trace all around the country.
‘I believe there are hundreds more victims out there. We have not been able to trace many of them but they can contact us even now.’
The blackmail and incitement started in October 2009 and continued until January 2012.
Akram will be sentenced at Exeter Crown Court on November 14.
The judge warned him that he faces a prison sentence measured in ‘years not months’.
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