A 42-year-old man from Pembroke described by a judge as a “committed paedophile” has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment at Swansea Crown Court after attempting to groom an undercover officer posing as a 12-year-old child while on bail for possessing extreme abuse images.
David Lewis appeared for sentence after pleading guilty to charges covering the possession and distribution of indecent imagery as well as attempted grooming offences committed over Snapchat.
The court was told that the initial investigation commenced on 6 August the previous year, when officers attended Lewis’s home in Pembroke and confiscated three mobile phones. Specialist examinations established that the devices contained 385 child sexual abuse images and videos. Of those files, 263 were classified as Category A, representing the most extreme tier of child sexual abuse, with the vast majority consisting of moving video files. Furthermore, detectives discovered that Lewis had used Telegram to distribute a Category A image showing the rape of a young child aged between 10 and 12 to another user.
Lewis was released on conditional bail while the digital evidence was being processed, with terms that explicitly prohibited him from having unsupervised contact with children.
However, on 10 November, Lewis made contact via Snapchat with an account operated by an undercover police operative. The decoy clearly stated that she was a 12-year-old schoolgirl. In response, Lewis claimed he was 20 years of age and provided a picture of a younger male. Across the subsequent days, Lewis made persistent requests for pictures of the decoy in her school uniform and instructed her to enter a toilet to produce explicit imagery. During a subsequent video call, Lewis exposed his genitals and carried out a sexual act. Officers subsequently matched the background bathroom decor and the garments worn during the transmission directly to Lewis’s residence.
Under the provisions of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 and Section 49 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, all children depicted in indecent images and any child witnesses or complainants are protected by automatic, lifelong statutory anonymity. Publishing, broadcasting, or disseminating any details, names, addresses, schools, or images capable of leading to the public identification of the victims is strictly prohibited under UK law.
Lewis pleaded guilty to:
- Three counts of making indecent images of children
- Distributing an indecent image of a child
- Attempted sexual communication with a child
- Attempted incitement of a child to engage in sexual activity
- Attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity
Sentencing Lewis, Judge Paul Thomas KC remarked that he was a “committed paedophile” who could not be deterred by arrests, bail conditions, or statutory bans on contacting children. The judge handed down an immediate determinate sentence of five years’ imprisonment. Under standard determinate sentencing legislation, Lewis will serve half of his term in prison custody before becoming eligible for conditional release on licence under probation service supervision.
Alongside the prison term, the court ordered:
- A 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) placing strict, enforceable conditions on his digital access and internet-enabled hardware
- Mandatory lifetime notification requirements on the Sex Offenders Register under the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
Image – Anonymous Artist Impression
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