A 24-year-old police officer from Bridgend, UK has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to blackmailing and threatening more than 200 girls as young as 10. Lewis Edward was found with 4,500 indecent photographs of children. According to BBC News he has admitted to 160 counts of child sexual abuse and blackmail.
Media reported that a South Wales police officer messaged 210 girls aged 10 to 16 from November 2020 to February 2023. Images from 2017 were found on his mobile phone.
Edwards joined the force as a police officer in January 2021, but is now banned from policing.
Imposing numerous concurrent prison sentences, including multiple life sentences with a minimum term of twelve years, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke stated: ‘It is clear that not only did he derive sexual gratification from his offending, but he also enjoyed the power and control that he had about these young girls.”
BBC reported that he will also be subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, banning him from working with children or vulnerable people and requiring him to register his personal details with police.
Judge Clarke described his behavior as ‘cruel and sadistic’ and ‘psychologically manipulative’, adding that he posed a significant risk of danger to children.
“Even as his victims cried and begged him to stop, the suspect did not stop, even though he could have no doubt about the enormous harm he was causing his victims,” she said.
The investigation first began in December 2022 when police received information about suspicious banking transactions and online activity linked to the downloading of indecent images of children from the dark web. South Wales Police said in a press release.
An IP address was linked to an address in the Bridgend area and further checks led to the perpetrator being identified as 23-year-old Lewis Edwards, a serving police officer.
Edwards was immediately suspended and resigned. An expedited misconduct hearing was held, which resulted in the sanction of dismissal.
Assistant Chief Constable Danny Richards said: ‘There will be those who wonder how Edwards could have joined the force whilst committing these terrible crimes.
“When he joined SWP, his investigation was clear and there was nothing to suggest he was involved in such abhorrent crimes against children.”