Mother of paedophile police officer hid evidence in cat's grave

The mother of a former police officer, who was given a life sentence for child sex abuse, has been jailed for hiding evidence in a cat's grave.

Lewis Edwards, 25, previously of Cefn Glas, Bridgend, used Snapchat to groom more than 200 girls online and admitted 160 counts of child sexual abuse and blackmail involving 4,500 indecent images of children.

He and his mother, Rebekah, a former social care worker for Bridgend Council, have been jailed for perverting the course of justice by concealing further evidence from the police, including by burying a phone in their cat’s grave.

Edwards, who joined South Wales Police in 2021, blackmailed his victims into sending indecent images of themselves through bullying and manipulation. 

He was in contact with 210 children on Snapchat, and forced them to strip naked and abuse themselves as they sobbed and begged him to stop. He would use a screen recorder app to record the abuse.

Edwards would add children aged between 10 and 16 years old on Snapchat while pretending to be a boy of a similar age. Once he had received one indecent image from his victim he would use it to blackmail them into sending more, while threatening to send the images to friends, family or post them online.

The images became more extreme in nature, and one of the victims injured herself after performing an act at the defendant's insistence. 

If the children did not comply with his demands, Edwards would threaten serious violence against them and their families.

Many of the victims would beg the paedophile to delete the images, with heartbreaking audio and video footage played in court of the victims' pleas for empathy. 

The former officer would also purchase child abuse material online from a site which obtained such material through blackmail. 

He was remanded in custody but police later received a phone call providing intelligence that Rebekah Edwards had recovered two mobile phones belonging to her son, and was told by Lewis Edwards to "bury the black one".

On August 3 last year, police attended the home of Rebekah Edwards' mother, where Rebekah Edwards was living, and she told them she had two mobile phones which she retrieved from her bedroom. 

The concealed phones came to light after a family member overheard conversations about the hidden evidence and reported it.

Upon being told the police had received intelligence about a phone being buried in the garden, Rebekah Edwards looked at her husband, and said: "I buried the phone in the garden when I buried the cat".

The mother and son were sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday.

Lewis Edwards was handed a two-year and eight-month sentence for further possession of indecent images and 12 months for perverting the course of justice.

He will serve both concurrently with his prior lifetime sentence for child sexual abuse.

His mother, Rebekah Edwards, 48, was given a two-year sentence, for which she must serve half in custody.

Prosecutor Roger Griffiths said the phone was dug up by Mark Edwards and was found to be a black phone with a smashed screen. The phones were examined and one of them was found to contain one category A indecent image of a child aged between 13 to 15 years old. A category B image depicted children aged between 10 and 15 and there were two category C images.

Despite the best efforts of the police, the buried phone could not be opened due to the SIM card being damaged beyond repair. Mr Griffiths said what was contained on the phone would "never be known". The third phone contained no child abuse material.

Lewis Edwards and Rebekah Edwards, of Longfellow Drive, Cefn Glas, both pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. Lewis Edwards also pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images of children between 2016 and 2023.

In mitigation for Lewis Edwards, who appeared via video link from HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, Andrew Davies said his client regrets embroiling members of his family in his offending. 

Giles Hayes, for Rebekah Edwards, said his client was of previous good character and is the primary carer for her mother who is in poor health. He said the defendant had worked as a social worker for Bridgend council for many years and had been "put in a dreadful position by her son through no fault of her own".

The barrister said Mrs Edwards also had an adult daughter and is a grandmother, and would likely be moving home due to fear of recriminations.

Sentencing, the Recorder of Cardiff Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said it was "inescapable" there was likely incriminating material on the buried phone, and the fact no prosecution could arise from material on the phone led to an effect on the administration of justice.

Following the hearing, Lucy Dowdall from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “At the time that she found her son’s mobile phones, Rebekah Edwards knew of the continued investigation into his offending behaviour. 

“In assisting his attempts to conceal further evidence of his sexual exploitation of children, she demonstrated a lack of concern for the devastating impact of her son’s actions on innumerable young people and their families. Her sole concern was for her paedophile son and not for his victims or helping them secure the justice they deserved.”

She added: “The fact that Lewis Edwards involved his own family members shows how far he was prepared to go to cover up his offending, and his continued lack of remorse for his abhorrent behaviour. The images found on one of the phones retrieved included category A images, the most severe type of child abuse, indicating the seriousness of his offending. 

“Our work on this case did not stop with the original conviction, and we have continued to work with investigators to identify where offences were committed, to ensure justice is served.”

Derek Ray-Hill, interim CEO of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the UK’s front line against online child sexual abuse imagery, said: "Every image or video of child sexual abuse is a crime scene. 

“The children are real, and the abuse inflicted on them can affect them for life. Brazen criminals like Edwards think only of themselves. His selfishness in trying to cover his own tracks with schemes involving his own family is in stark contrast to how little he cares about those children who suffered as a result of his actions.

“Every day at the IWF, we see the results of his kind of offending. That predators like Edwards can now reach children through their phones, when they should be safe in their own homes, is a public health scandal which must be taken seriously.”

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