By Ahmed Abdelsalam
A maths teacher who posed as teenage boys on Snapchat to groom and sexually assault vulnerable girls has been jailed for 10 years. Syed Ahmed, 38, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday for child sex offences including rape and sexual assault, following a trial held between June and July. The court also imposed an additional three-year extended licence period.
Grooming tactics and offences
Prosecutor Daniel O’Donoghue told the court that Ahmed, then in his early 30s and working as a maths teacher in Essex, approached teenage girls on platforms such as Wizz and Yubo using a false name, age and heavily filtered images. He moved conversations to Snapchat, where he engaged in grooming behaviour, using flattery, promises of gifts, declarations of love and sexualised dialogue to gain trust. He persuaded five victims, aged between 13 and 16, to meet him in person. On each occasion he drove them to isolated locations – a wooded area, an unfurnished flat and a summerhouse – where he committed sexual acts.
Convictions and previous sentence
Ahmed was convicted of three counts of rape, five counts of meeting a child following sexual grooming, two counts of assault by penetration, one count of causing a child to engage in sexual acts and one count of attempted sexual assault. He had already been sentenced in September 2025 to an extended 20-year term – 15 years in custody with a five-year extension for dangerousness – after a separate trial at the same court. He also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual communication with a child, making and taking indecent images, and arranging child sex offences.
Victim impact and defence
Victim impact statements described lasting trauma, with one girl saying she felt “relieved” but now remains “reserved and anxious”. Another said she trusted the false identity “Miles” and feared he would come to her home. Defence counsel Aqsa Hussain said Ahmed had struggled with adult relationships and that his teaching career of about 10 years had been free of misconduct complaints. The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed Ahmed resigned after his arrest in May 2023.
