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A serving police officer who groomed over 200 girls online and asked his victims to take sexual images in their school uniforms has been jailed for life.
Lewis Edwards, 24, had smirked towards the family members of his victims, showing “no remorse” after posing as a 14-year-old boy on Snapchat to target young girls. He was eventually caught with more than 4,500 indecent images of children, who were aged between 10 and 16.
He had threatened his victims, telling them he would publish their images or harm their families if they did not comply with his demands.
His offending took place between November 2020 until his arrest in February 2023, while he had joined South Wales Police in January 2021.
All but one of the victims were abused by Edwards while he was a serving police officer, and he targeted one teenager 17 days after meeting her as part of his duties.
Investigators found that on 30 occasions, he was in contact with his victims during working hours.
Stating that he had gained “sadistic enjoyment” from the distress of his young victims, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke sentenced him to life with a minimum term of 12 years.
Members of the police’s online investigation team had executed a search warrant at the house Edwards shared with his mother and father in Bridgend, not far from South Wales police headquarters, in February 2023.
The prosecutor said: “The defendant was in his bedroom. Found next to him were two mobile phones. Police began the mammoth task of investigating vast quantities of material on the electronic devices they were able to access.
“What it revealed was online interaction between the defendant and female children. He would request girls to engage in various sexual activities.”
In one recording played to the court, Edwards can be heard masturbating as he encourages his 12-year-old victim to do the same.
The majority of his offending took place while he was a police officer with South Wales Police
He also told a victim that other girls had killed themselves and he did not care if she did.
The court heard some girls were so traumatised by what Edwards did to them that they started self-harming, and another slept with a hammer under her pillow.
On several occasions, Edwards told victims to write “Snapgod” on their bodies. Snapgod is a distributor of child sexual abuse material from whom Edwards had bought images using bitcoin.
Edwards also threatened to bomb the house of one of his victims and shoot her parents if she stopped sending him images, the court was told.
Edwards pleaded guilty to 161 offences, including blackmail, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity at Cardiff Crown Court (Barry Batchelor/PA)
Several victims said their trust of the police has been shattered.
One mother said: “We cannot get our head around the fact that somebody who was there to protect you could do this.
“The smirk he gave us in court shows that he has no remorse. I do not think he can or will have any understanding or care how he has impacted his victims.
“Lewis Edwards, I want you to know that as a family we will never forgive you and we feel nothing for you but hate.”
Another mother said: “As parents you will do anything to protect your child and when we think about what she went through during that period, it really does break our hearts.”
During the prosecution’s opening, Mr Griffiths had to take a break having become emotional reading a statement from the mother of one of Edwards’s victims.
One victim had confessed to her father that she had sent Edwards an indecent image via Snapchat and he was asking for more and threatening to share it if she did not comply.
“Her father took her phone and messaged the individual, saying ‘This is her Dad stop now what you’re doing is illegal’,” Mr Griffiths said.
“Their response was ‘Lol’ – ‘laugh out loud’. He replied with a photograph of himself with the caption ‘Just in case you think I’m joking I’m her Dad stop now’.
“From there he sensed the individual seemed to panic. They begged ‘Please don’t say anything I won’t share then. I won’t do anything’.
“From the panic in the tone he assumed he was speaking with a child. He suspended her Snapchat account and reported the episode to Snapchat.”
Mr Griffiths said the girl’s parents reported the incident to the police and they received advice about online safety.
Sentencing him to life, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told Cardiff Crown Court: “These are extremely serious offences and the defendant is a prolific offender.
“He has caused significant harm to the victims, their parents, their siblings and their wider families.
“It is clear that he not only gained sexual gratification but he also enjoyed the power he had over the young girls.”
She described his behaviour as “cruel and sadistic”, adding that she found he was dangerous and posed a high risk of danger to children.
More follows on this breaking news story
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2023-10-25 10:18:54Z
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