Police urged to tighten vetting after Snapchat sex case

Lewis Edwards pleaded guilty to 160 counts of child sex abuse and blackmail

Police forces have been urged to tighten job vetting after a paedophile PC was jailed for grooming more than 200 girls, some as young as 10.

Lewis Edwards, 24, blackmailed and threatened them into sending explicit photos of themselves on Snapchat.

The former South Wales Police officer was jailed for life for 160 counts of child sexual abuse and blackmail.

South Wales Police said vetting when Edwards joined did not indicate anything to suggest the offences.

Former inspector of constabulary Zoe Billingham said the bar for vetting applicants was "clearly too low".

It was "almost unthinkable" a police officer could commit such crimes, she said, and Edwards should never have got into the force.

The Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services assesses the effectiveness of the police and fire services.

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"He joined in 2021 at the height of his offending, and there should have been ways and means of vetting someone like that, so they never got close to a police uniform," Ms Billingham said.

"The bar that has been set for vetting police officers is clearly too low."

Edwards threatened girls if they did not send him the pictures he asked for

When he was caught Edwards, of Cefn Glas, Bridgend, had 4,500 indecent images of children.

After the Covid pandemic, Ms Billingham said, some forces were not holding face-to-face interviews.

"We need to make sure there is psychometric testing for police officers, and there needs to be a really good investigation as we are appointing police officers.

"What are their motivations for coming into the police, what do they think it is for, and much more checking around social media and so on.

"The public have an absolute right to be protected to make sure the police are there for the right reasons and they are there to protect them.

"I think much more need to done to strengthen vetting."

She said forces needed a culture in which they felt free to call out colleagues suspected of criminality.

"In the past I think there has been this sense that police officers closed ranks," she said.

Former inspector of constabulary Zoe Billingham called Edwards an abomination

Yasmin Khan, who advises the Welsh government on sexual violence, told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: "This case is not just damning to criminal justice, but it is damning for victims and those at risk, who really do have very little trust in the police".

She called the case "sickening" and said the focus should be on prevention.

"The police officer concerned was, on 30 separate occasions, in contact with victims doing his work," she said.

Following the sentencing of Edwards on Wednesday, South Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Daniel Richards said there was no place in the force for officers who abused their responsibility.

"The crimes committed by Lewis Edwards are despicable and the public will be as shocked and sickened as we are that such appalling offences were committed by a serving police officer," he added.

"As soon as we knew the offender was a serving police officer, Edwards was suspended and sacked."