Alaric Bristow

A paedophile science teacher from Coventry has been sentenced to five years in prison after admitting to a series of child sexual exploitation offences. Alaric Bristow, aged 31, abused his position of trust by targeting more than 200 schoolboys, many of whom were his own students, through fake social media profiles.

Bristow created deceptive online personas of teenage girls, using seductive images downloaded from the web to lure the boys into explicit interactions. He tricked them into performing sex acts on camera, recording the footage without their knowledge. The offender meticulously catalogued his 'trophies' in folders and spreadsheets on his laptop, tracking the progress of each 'relationship' and storing over 1,000 indecent images and videos. In a particularly disturbing detail, he even assembled a PowerPoint presentation showcasing the material for his personal sexual gratification.

• Pleaded guilty to 12 counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity
• 9 counts of making indecent images of children
• 1 count of possessing prohibited images

The case came to light in September 2018 when West Midlands Police received intelligence about suspicious internet activity linked to Bristow's home address. Officers seized his laptop and hard drive, uncovering the vast hoard of material and evidence of his systematic grooming campaign. The investigation involved 20 specialist officers who traced and identified the 213 victims, aged between 13 and 15, from schools where Bristow taught science.

At Warwick Crown Court on 10 May 2019, Judge Peter Cooke condemned Bristow for leading a 'dark secret double life'. 'The offending has been rightly described as a campaign to get over 200 boys to display themselves to you over the internet,' the judge stated. 'You abused your position of trust... When they thought they were flirting with a girl their own age, they were being recorded and lusted over by one of their own teachers, a man they were supposed to be able to trust.' The court determined Bristow posed a significant risk of reoffending, ordering him to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence in custody and placing him on the sex offenders' register for life.

Prosecutor John O'Higgins highlighted the 'enormous investigation' required to support the victims. Detective Constable Ian Russell from West Midlands Police's Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team noted Bristow's continued offending even after arrest, breaching bail by accessing the internet. 'As a school teacher he was in a position of trust and should have known the devastating emotional effect this type of abuse can have on young people,' Russell said. Bristow admitted the fake profiles were created solely to obtain the images but denied any intention of physical contact. The sentencing reflects the severity of his betrayal of trust and the scale of harm inflicted on vulnerable children.