Lewis Edwards: paedophile police officer who forced more than 200 girls to send explicit Snapchat messages sentenced to 12 years

A paedophile police officer who groomed more than 200 kids and forced them to send sexually explicit images and videos to him over Snapchat has been jailed for a minimum of 12 years.

Lewis Edwards, 24, targeted 210 young girls between the ages of 10 and 16 and forced them to send along the images. Many of the online messages were secretly recorded by Edwards and he sent some victims vidoes in return of him performing sex acts on himself. He would then attempt to blackmail some of his victims, by telling them that he would tell their friends and family about the incidents unless they sent new images and videos which were more graphic.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Edwards had even threatened to bomb the house of one of his victims and shoot her parents if she were to stop sending him images. The court also heard that many of his victims had suffered as a result of the abuse, with some self-harming, developing anxiety and depression and even having suicidal thoughts.

Edwards was a former police officer at South Wales Police. He joined the force in January 2021 and has since resigned from his role, but the court heard that all but one of the victims were abused while he was serving as a police officer. Investigators on the case also found that Edwards had been in contact with his victims at least 30 times during working hours.

Detectives also raided the home he shared with his parent in Bridgend, South Wales in February and confiscated mobile phones, a computer, USB sticks and a hard drive. He previously pleaded guilty to 22 counts of blackmail, 138 child sex offences and a further offence of refusing to disclose the password to a mobile phone and USB stick. He would go on to plead guilty to a total of 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.

Prosecutor Roger Griffiths told the court: “The police investigation of the material accessible to them revealed the online interaction between the defendant and the victims in the indictments. 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 some of the sickening images and videos recorded by Edwards were played to the court, with one teenage girl seen in a video crying and wiping away tears. In a victim impact statement read out to the court, the girl in question said: “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.”

The mother of one child added: “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.”

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.”

Speaking about safety on the platform, a spokesperson for Snapchat 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.”

Edwards refused to attend his sentencing hearing, which took place over three days. In his absence, he was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years behind bars.