Paedophile teacher given 138-year jail sentence by Spanish courts

Ben Lewis, 33, formerly of Watford and Borehamwood, was found guilty of making indecent videos of children - after he was spared jail for the same offence in the UK.

Lewis moved to Spain and changed his name in 2016 to Ben David Rose, four months after being let off with a suspended two-year jail term for making an indecent film of a nine-year-old girl at a summer camp where he worked in Bushey.

Read more: Summer camp boss had series of indecent images and videos

The paedophile used his new identity to hide his conviction and get a job at an English language school in Madrid.

During the trial held behind closed doors in the Provincial Court of Madrid, judges heard between 2016 and 2018, Lewis worked as a carer and English teacher for children of two families in Madrid and Zaragoza.

A statement released in court on Thursday (May 26) said Lewis “took nude photos of the girls of the house and their friends”.

It added: “On one occasion he ejaculated in some spaghetti that he then fed to a minor, he distributed among third parties photographs and recordings of his acts, including snapshots of his sexual organs as he approached the children, without touching them, while they were playing a video game, and he got hold of photographic files of the families that he sometimes manipulated and sometimes not and then distributed to third parties.”

Ben Lewis

Lewis went on to work at a private school in Madrid until 2019, where “he recorded videos and took pictures of the minors focusing on the panties and, on other occasions, putting the camera under the skirt”, the court statement added.

Pornographic material was seized by Spanish police following an alert from Australia's Queensland Police Service.

Lewis was arrested on June 24, 2020, and was held in remand on the Spanish capital.

He has been sentenced to 138 years and three months in jail for eight crimes of child pornography, one crime against moral integrity, 32 crimes of discovery and disclosure of secrets and a crime of forgery of official documents.

However, the Mail has reported he is only expected to serve 20 years.

He has also been ordered to compensate the parents of the underage victims of his crimes in amounts ranging from €3,000 to €6,000.

The judges have imposed a probation measure for eight years, during which time Lewis must participate in sex education programs.

It has not been proven Lewis sexually abused the minors and he is free to appeal his sentence to the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid.

Lewis was spared jail in June 2016 after he admitted three counts of downloading indecent images of one of taking indecent images after telling a court he wanted to get married and have children.

He was arrested after a colleague at a summer camp where he was working in Bushey found naked photos of children as young as three on his iPhone, St Albans Crown Court heard.