A former British police officer has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 12 years after he pleaded guilty to over 100 child sex offenses.
LONDON (AP) — A former British police officer was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with a minimum term of 12 years after he pleaded guilty to over 100 child sex offenses, including threatening and blackmailing more than 200 young girls into sending him sexual photos of themselves on Snapchat.
Prosecutors say Lewis Edwards, 24, targeted 210 girls between the ages of 10 and 16 by posing as a teenage boy on the phone app.
He groomed them into sharing indecent images of themselves, then threatened many of his victims when they refused, blackmailing them into complying out of fear that he would expose them.
In one case, prosecutors said Edwards threatened to bomb the house of a victim and shoot her parents if she stopped sending him images.
Many of the victims and their families sat in the packed public gallery for Wednesday’s sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court, but Edwards refused to attend.
“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,” the California-based company said.
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LONDON (AP) — A former British police officer was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with a minimum term of 12 years after he pleaded guilty to over 100 child sex offenses, including threatening and blackmailing more than 200 young girls into sending him sexual photos of themselves on Snapchat.
Prosecutors say Lewis Edwards, 24, targeted 210 girls between the ages of 10 and 16 by posing as a teenage boy on the phone app.
He groomed them into sharing indecent images of themselves, then threatened many of his victims when they refused, blackmailing them into complying out of fear that he would expose them.
In one case, prosecutors said Edwards threatened to bomb the house of a victim and shoot her parents if she stopped sending him images.
Many of the victims and their families sat in the packed public gallery for Wednesday’s sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court, but Edwards refused to attend.
“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,” the California-based company said.
The original article contains 354 words, the summary contains 184 words. Saved 48%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!