UK teacher paid money to view child sexual abuse in India, shared material on Dark Web
A photo of school teacher Matthew Smith.
A school teacher in the United Kingdom (UK) is facing jail after he admitted paying over $82,000 (around £65,000) to view videos of child sexual abuse in India. Matthew Smith,the former deputy head of pastoral care at Thomas’s prep school,was arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in November last year after investigators found that he was sharing the abuse material on the Dark Web, a report by the NCA on Tuesday (June 20) said.
NCA officer Helen Dore said that Smith was a high-risk individual and the police moved quickly to arrest and remand him so that he could no longer pose a threat to children.
At the time of his arrest, Smith, 34, was speaking to a teenager in India, encouraging him to send sexual images of a younger child for money. Investigators later established that Smith paid the same teenager and another Indian teenager over $82,000, to abuse children for five years.
Chat logs reveal disturbing details
Chat logs have shown how Smith ordered the Indian teenagers to perform sexual acts on boys, and then send videos and images in return for payment, according to a report by The Telegraph on Tuesday.The school teacher also advised the teenagers on how to befriend children and build trust.
Investigators recovered 120,000 indecent images of children from Smith's devices. They also found evidence that the 34-year-old abused children himself while he was in India.
Who is Matthew Smith?
Matthew Smith is a school teacher in the UK but has spent many years working in schools, orphanages and non-government organisations (NGOs) across Nepal and India. In September last year, he was appointed the deputy head of pastoral care at Thomas’s prep school,an institution once attended by Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
In November last year, Smith pleaded guilty to initial offences but was charged with a further 17 counts in May this year which included encouraging the rape of a child under the age of 13, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and arranging the sexual abuse of a child. On Tuesday, he appeared at Southwark Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to the additional offences.
'Shocked and appalled': School on Smith's actions
A spokesperson from the Thomas prep school said that the institution was shocked and appalled beyond measure by the matter. “Mr Smith’s employment at the school, which commenced in September 2022, was terminated with immediate effect when the school first learned of the charges against him in November," the spokesperson said, The Telegraph report said.
The spokesperson added that while the NCA confirmed none of the matters under probe related to the school or its students, "these deplorable actions constitute an unforgivable breach of trust and our thoughts are with those who have been impacted or damaged by them."
The report also said that Smith was remanded into custody ahead of a sentencing hearing in August. He is expected to receive a substantial prison term.
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