Lewis Edwards: Paedophile police officer who abused 200 girls on Snapchat jailed for life

Lewis Edwards, a serving officer at the time of the offences, answered "no comment" in police interview

Warning: This article contains descriptions of child sexual abuse

A paedophile police officer who posed as a boy on Snapchat to incite more than 200 girls to send him explicit photos of themselves has been jailed for life.

Lewis Edwards, 24, of Bridgend, used fake Snapchat accounts where he posed as a 14-year-old boy to groom 210 girls aged between 10 and 16.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that, during a three-year period, Edwards forced his victims to make indecent videos and images of themselves, which he secretly recorded.

He then used the recordings to blackmail his victims into sending increasingly graphic content - threatening to share the images online and tell their family and friends.

The court heard all but one of the victims were abused while he was a serving police officer for South Wales Police, and he targeted one teenager just 17 days after meeting her as part of his duties.

Edwards was immediately suspended from duty upon his arrest and later resigned.

Investigators found that on 30 occasions, Edwards was in contact with his victims during working hours.

The ex-South Wales Police officer was caught by his own force after they received intelligence about the downloading of indecent images from the dark web.

Detectives raided the home Edwards shared with his parents in Bridgend, South Wales, in February this year and seized mobile phones, a computer, USB sticks and a hard drive.

“The police investigation of the material accessible to them revealed the online interaction between the defendant and the victims in the indictments,” Roger Griffiths, prosecuting, said.

“His requests for the girls to engage in various sexual activities ranging from exposing their breasts and genitalia to penetrating themselves with their fingers and objects, his recording and keeping of the images he obtained, and blackmailing of the children for more indecent images they refused to provide more images.”

The court was shown some of the videos Edwards had recorded of his victims and in one, a teenage girl can be seen crying and wiping tears from her eyes.

In a victim impact statement, the girl described Edwards as a “paedophile” and added: “I was a little girl. I feel embarrassed, disgusted and abused. I lost my innocence.

“I know the police are there to help us but how can I call the police now if I am in danger? I would not be able to trust the people who are there to keep us safe.”

South Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Daniel Richards described Edwards' crimes as "despicable".

He said: "The public will be as shocked and sickened as we are that such appalling offences were committed by a police officer.

"As soon as we knew that the suspect was a serving officer, Lewis Edwards was suspended and sacked at a misconduct hearing which was held at he very earliest opportunity to remove him from the service.

"His behaviour only serves to damage to public’s trust and confidence in policing and undermines the work of responsible, hard-working police officers who serve the communities of South Wales with courage and pride."

He added: "There is no place in South Wales Police for anyone who abuses the personal responsibility that they hold as a police officer or member of staff."

The court previously heard that 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.

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. Several victims said their trust in the police has been shattered.

Edwards, who joined the force in January 2021 and has since resigned, previously pleaded guilty to 161 offences, including blackmail, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, making a child watch a sex act, demanding indecent images of children, and making indecent images of children.

Susan Ferrier, defending, said: “Nothing I can say is capable in any way of making up to the victims of what Lewis Edwards has accepted by his guilty pleas.

“It was prolonged, shocking and predatory offending against young girls. When he started his offending no doubt it spiralled out of control and he couldn’t stop himself, knowing it was wrong.

“He knows that he faces a very long period of imprisonment.”

Edwards again refused to attend his three-day sentencing hearing and he was jailed in his absence.

Lucy Dowdall, Specialist Prosecutor for the CPS said: “The extent of Edwards' offending is incomprehensible, my thoughts remain with the victims who have suffered his abuse.

“Lewis Edwards abused the trust placed in him as a serving police officer, targeting children online in an avalanche of sustained sexual abuse, grooming them and forcing them to satisfy his own sexual needs.

“Edwards tactics of threatening and blackmailing his victims shows the extent of his depraved actions and lack of remorse towards those he targeted.

“He believed he was above the law, and his role as a police officer would protect him from investigation and prosecution. He was wrong - together the CPS and South Wales Police worked tirelessly to build a strong case against him and see him plead guilty."

She added: “There is nowhere for sexual predators to operate or hide. Our Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit is a specialist unit dedicated to prosecuting child sexual abuse, and we will continue to work closely with the police to bring offenders to justice.”

An NSPCC Cymru spokesperson said: “It is incredibly distressing that Edwards committed these abhorrent crimes against children when, as a serving police officer, his role was to protect the vulnerable and he would have been aware of the devastating impact sexual abuse can have on young people.

“It is also deeply concerning the ease with which he was able to use social media to target children, and threaten and blackmail his victims to provide him with explicit material.

“This case demonstrates why the Online Safety Bill, which will soon become law, is so important, as it will require tech firms to design their sites with children’s safety as a priority, so they will be at less risk of harm from offenders like Edwards."

A Snapchat spokesperson said: “Any sexual exploitation of young people is abhorrent and illegal and our hearts go out to the victims in this case.

"We work in multiple ways to detect and prevent this type of abuse including using cutting-edge detection technology, and we work with police to support investigations. We have extra protections for under 18s and recently added a new pop-up warning for teens if they are contacted by someone who they don't know. Our Family Centre allows parents to see who their teens are talking to.”

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