Lincolnshire school 'upskirter' Lewis Croft, 19, jailed

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-50435067

Version 0 of 1.

A child care student who secretly photographed girls in a Lincolnshire school while they were undressing for PE has been jailed.

Lewis Croft, 19, admitted secretly taking hundreds of photographs of children while on work placement.

He also took upskirt photos of girls in the classroom, Lincoln Crown Court heard.

Croft, of Cliff Road, Welton, near Lincoln, was jailed for 26 months.

He was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Phil Howes, prosecuting, told the court Croft was caught after uploading other indecent images to the internet.

The defendant, who had passed disclosure checks and was a volunteer scout leader, was traced and his home was raided.

'Abuse of trust'

Hundreds of indecent images of children, including more than 200 he took at the school were discovered.

"Analysis of his devices revealed a number of indecent images of children. Some were uploaded from the internet and some were taken in a school," Mr Howes said.

"They included photographs showing children in the classroom in various states of dress. There were also upskirt shots," he added.

The court heard the offences took place while Croft was on a work placement from his child care course at Lincoln College.

Croft admitted taking 229 indecent images of children, between November 2018 and July.

He also admitted three charges of making over 1,500 indecent images of children that he had downloaded from the internet.

Recorder Catarina Sjolin, passing sentence on Friday, told him: "You deny sexual interest in children and deny any sexual motive behind taking these photographs.

"I cannot accept that."

"A huge aggravating factor in this case is the abuse of trust. These children were known to you and your offending went on for a long period."

Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.