Mother of former South Wales Police officer jailed for perverting course of justice

The mother of a former police officer who was given a life sentence for child sex abuse has been sentenced to two years for perverting the course of justice, after burying 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, 48, were then charged with perverting the course of justice by concealing further evidence from the police, including by burying a phone in their cat’s grave.

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

Child sexual abuse

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, a former social care worker for Bridgend Council, was given a two-year sentence, for which she must serve half in custody.

The judge, Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said Rebekah Edwards’ offence was “too serious for anything other than immediate custodial sentence”.

She added: “Bearing in mind that one of the purposes for sentencing for these types of offences is deterrence as well as punishment.”

Grooming

Lewis Edwards, a former police officer with South Wales Police, posed as a teenage boy to target young girls between 10 and 16, grooming them into sharing indecent images of themselves.

He appeared in court remotely from HMP Parkhurst, wearing a grey jumper, he spent most of the sentencing staring down at his hands on the desk in front of him.

Edwards was initially arrested on February 8 2023 at his parents’ home.

After this, his mother found three more of his phones and moved them from one address to another, concealing them from the police investigation.

She then – at his request – buried one of them in the back garden in the grave of a family pet.

On August 3 of that year, the police executed a warrant at the family’s home and Mrs Edwards initially only handed over two phones, not knowing the police were aware of the third.

Questioned about the phone in the garden, she admitted it was there, and Mark Edwards, her husband, dug it up and handed it to the police.

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

Indecent images

The phone found in the garden was too badly damaged to be searched, however, further indecent images of children, as well as applications commonly used by offenders to evade detection were found on the other phones.

Edwards used Snapchat to contact his victims and would manipulate the young girls into sending explicit photos and videos.

Despite the victims’ pleas for him to stop and threatening to report him to the police, Edwards continued to take advantage.

When they refused, he would become increasingly threatening, blackmailing them into complying out of fear he would expose them.

He was a serving police officer when he engaged in his predatory behaviour, having met one of his victims in the course of his work.

He was previously sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years.

‘Devastating impact’

Lucy Dowdall from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “In assisting his attempts to conceal further evidence of his sexual exploitation of children, (Rebekah Edwards) 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.

“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.”