Former South Wales police officer charged with 54 further child sex offences

A former South Wales Police officer has been further charged with a string of child sex offences.

Lewis Edwards, 23, faces 54 more charges relating to child sex abuse, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

He has already pleaded guilty to more than 100 charges of inciting children to engage in sexual activity online, with the alleged offending taking place while he worked for South Wales Police.

At a hearing in May, he admitted 106 offences including blackmail, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, making a child watch a sex act, sexual communication, making indecent images of children, possessing indecent images of children and a single charge of distribution.

He has been further charged with 25 counts of inciting a child to engage in penetrative and non-penetrative sexual activity, and six counts of making a child watch a sex act.

The new charges also include 14 counts of making an unwarranted demand of indecent images of children with menaces, and nine counts of making indecent images of children.

Resigned

The former officer, from Bridgend, was suspended from duty immediately after being arrested over the initial charges and later resigned.

He will appear at Cardiff Crown Court over the fresh allegations on August 23.

Lucy Dowdall, a specialist prosecutor for the CPS, said: “The CPS has authorised further charges in relation to Lewis Anthony Edwards.

“The charges relate to child sexual abuse, including 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.

“Criminal proceedings against Mr Edwards are now active and he has the right to a fair trial.

“It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”