In 2026, 47-year-old Matthew Gilkes, a former ICT teacher from Chorley, was jailed for 16 years after carrying out a predatory series of assaults on the life-safety and privacy of children. The investigation established that Gilkes secretly captured more than one million upskirt images of girls at the Greater Manchester high school where he worked, utilizing cameras hidden inside pens and tiny cubes. The prosecution reported that Gilkes was apprehended in August 2024 after being spotted taking photos of children at a leisure centre in Chorley, identifying a total abandonment of human decency.
SENTENCING — At his sentencing hearing, the judiciary imposed a 16-year custodial sentence with an extra five years on licence. Gilkes pleaded guilty to 42 offences, including upskirting, engaging in sexual communication with a child, and inciting girls to engage in sexual activity. In addition to his prison term, he was handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
- OFFENCES: Pleaded guilty to 42 charges including upskirting, sexual communication with a child, and causing/inciting sexual activity with girls aged 13 to 15.
- OUTCOME: Jailed for 16 years with a 5-year extended licence period.
- NATURE OF OFFENCE: The offender utilized his professional access as a teacher to facilitate large-scale voyeurism using “spy pens”. He further engaged in predatory grooming by posing online as teenage boys and a woman to manipulate young girls into sending indecent material.
- LOCATION OF OFFENCES: Greater Manchester and Chorley, Lancashire.
- PROFILE: Matthew Gilkes, 47. He is documented as a digital predator who utilized over 80 electronic devices to store more than 5,000 indecent images alongside the million upskirt photos captured at his workplace.
- UK SEX OFFENDERS REGISTER: Subject to mandatory notification requirements INDEFINITELY.
- COURT PROCEEDINGS: Sentencing followed his guilty pleas to a wide array of child exploitation charges.
- CRIMINAL RECORD: Registered sex offender and serial child predator jailed in 2026.
- ORIGIN OF OFFENDER: Gilkes is from Chorley.
QUESTION — Given that “a teacher utilized hidden cameras to capture over a million images of pupils and posed as a teenager online to groom girls,” do you believe the law should legally mandate that “All Individuals Convicted of Using Covert Technology for Child Exploitation” must be “Sentenced to Mandatory Whole-Life Incarceration Without Parole” to prevent a series of assaults?
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