Jail for teacher who used ‘spy pens’ to take upskirt photos of school children
Matthew Gilkes (Lancashire Constabulary/PA)
Matthew Gilkes, a former high school teacher, has been jailed for 16 years after taking over a million upskirt images of pupils using secret cameras.
He was apprehended in August 2024 after being caught photographing children under cubicles at a leisure centre in Chorley, Lancashire.
A search of his home and workplace uncovered over 80 devices, including spy pens and handheld cameras, containing numerous indecent images, many of pupils from his own school.
Gilkes also used fake social media accounts to pose as a teenage boy, grooming and manipulating girls into sending indecent images and videos of themselves.
He pleaded guilty to various offences, including operating equipment beneath clothing without consent and engaging in sexual communication with a child, and was also given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
