A court in Wales, has handed a life sentence to a former British police officer identified as Lewis Edwards, who was convicted for having posed as a teenage boy on social media to trick girls into sending explicit images of themselves.
The ex-police’s sentencing on Wednesday, comes after a number of highly damaging episodes for UK forces, in particular London’s Metropolitan Police Service, the country’s largest.
AFP reports that Edwards, who is 24 years of age exploited 210 girls aged between 10 and 16 by coercing them to send graphics images of themselves on Snapchat, a social media platform where images typically disappear, that he then secretly saved.
He will spend a minimum of 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to 160 charges, including child sexual abuse and blackmail.
Edwards, who refused to appear in court for his sentencing, was granted a reduction of one-third to his sentence due to his entering a guilty plea for the crimes that took place between November 2020 and February 2023.
Speaking in the Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke,said; “These are extremely serious offences and the defendant is a prolific offender,”
“It is clear that he not only gained sexual gratification but he also enjoyed the power he had over the young girls.”
“There is no doubt he has caused significant harm to the reputation of South Wales Police and policing in general,” she added
During the trial the court heard how Edwards, who joined South Wales Police in January 2021, blackmailed many of his victims with threats to tell their family and friends unless they sent increasingly graphic content.
Edwards, who was suspended and resigned from the force after his arrest in February, also threatened to bomb the house of one of his victims and shoot her parents if she stopped sending him images.
Detectives raided the home he shared with his parents in Bridgend, South Wales, seizing mobile phones, a computer, USB sticks and a hard drive.
Investigators found that on 30 occasions, Edwards was in contact with his victims during working hours.
|Vanguard/AP
