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.
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 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.”
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 from HMP Parkhurst.
