Former UK teacher sentenced to 12 years in prison for encouraging teenagers to abuse children in India
On Wednesday, a former deputy head teacher at a primary school in London who had admitted to paying and training teens to abuse younger children in India was given a 12-year jail term. The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Matthew Smith, 35, of East Dulwich in south London in November of last year after discovering that he was spreading abusive content on the dark web. He has now been convicted at Southwark Crown Court in London.
The NCA claims that Smith was online at the time of his arrest, corresponding with a teenage kid in India and soliciting him to give sexually explicit pictures of a younger child in exchange for cash. On his computer, he also had forums and dark web pages devoted to child sex abuse accessible. According to Helen Dore, Senior Officer of the NCA, Matthew Smith is a serial criminal and master manipulator who forced young men to abuse children on his behalf.
He was good at concealing his sexual interest in youngsters while always looking for ways to have access to them. He deeply betrayed the confidence put in him by carrying out his wrongdoing while serving as a teacher and the director of pastoral care. It is evident that Smith has no sympathy whatsoever for his victims or the devastation he has done to them. She said that while he poses a very real and severe danger to children, our investigation has made sure he will serve a lengthy jail sentence.
Smith is also subject to a lifetime sex offenders registry listing and an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. The NCA emphasized that it is dedicated to doing business both domestically and abroad, working with international partners to guarantee that children are protected and perpetrators like Smith are prosecuted. Investigators from the agency were able to confirm that Smith had paid the same youngster and another who was also situated in India a total of GBP 65,398 over a five-year period to harm children after questioning chat logs and money transactions.
The chat records revealed that Smith would tell the young guys to have sex with boys while also sending them pictures and videos of sex acts he would want to see in return. Smith also offered one of them suggestions on how to approach kids and gain their confidence in order to abuse them. Between 2007 until 2014, he worked intermittently in orphanages and NGOs all around India. After that, he lived and worked in Nepal at a school.
The UK investigators discovered evidence of possible child abuse by Smith when he was working in India. The NCA said it provided information with the Indian authorities and that it is still collaborating with them to find and protect victims. Smith returned to the UK in July 2022, and in September of the same year, he started working as a deputy head teacher and head of pastoral care in a primary school in London. He was discovered to have placed an internet ad for a flat-share at the time in which he claimed to be a primary school teacher and provide child care.
The NCA said that he was detained before his offer could be accepted and that there is no proof he committed crimes against minors based in Nepal or the UK. Officers discovered more than 120,000 lewd photos of minors that Smith had stored on his phone, an SD card, and a laptop. He admitted admission to five original offenses, including inducing the sexual exploitation of a minor under 13, according to the NCA’s report from June, and was ordered to remain in jail until November 2022.
He also entered guilty pleas to a total of 17 more offenses earlier this year, including inciting the rape of a child under 13, causing a child under 13, and planning the sexual assault of a child.
