Lee Smith, a Dawlish Paedophile who stored hundreds of child sex abuse photographs on his electronic devices has been sentenced to imprisonment. Lee Smith from Dawlish possessed almost 400 abhorrent photographs and films on his phones, a laptop, and cloud storage accounts, including examples of the most severe category of child sexual exploitation.
The 47-year-old, Lee Smith, was scrutinised by the National Crime Agency in 2023, following a report from an overseas cloud storage provider indicating that offensive material was discovered on four accounts associated with a UK user. The accounts seemed to be associated with Smith, who had been previously convicted of indecent image crimes in 2006 and received a suspended sentence at the time.
On 8 June 2023, Lee Smith was intercepted and interrogated by Border Force agents at Heathrow Airport upon his arrival on an aircraft from Uganda. Lee Smith stated that he had undertaken 29 journeys to Uganda, where he asserted that he was financing the educational expenses of several Ugandan children.
The information was given to the NCA and, on June 17, Lee Smith was arrested while attempting to leave the country on a flight to Denmark. NCA officers seized a mobile phone on which was an indecent video of children which he filmed during a trip to Uganda.
He was charged on June 18 and remanded in custody. While awaiting trial, NCA officers worked with Devon and Cornwall Police to search Lee Smith’s two cars, 11 mobile phone, a laptop and a number of storage devices such as hard drives, USBs and micro SD cards.
Digital forensic officers scoured through thousands of files stored on the devices, recovering hundreds more images of child abuse in the process. As a result, Smith was charged with further offences.
He initially denied knowledge of the material and he stated that the devices and cloud accounts did not belong to him. However, when faced with the NCA’s overwhelming evidence of his crimes, Lee Smith was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on Tuesday, October 22.
He was also issued with a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which curtails his activities online and in the real world. He has been placed on the sex offenders register for life.
NCA Senior Investigating Officer Daniel Waywell , said: “Lee Smith downloaded hundreds of images depicting just as many children being sexually abused. Every child in those images has suffered for the gratification of Smith and others like him.
“The cloud storage provider showed great responsibility in reporting their suspicions about the user accounts. Their action helped us stop Smith continuing to create a demand for child sexual abuse content and creating his own.
“The NCA is committed to working with partners worldwide to protect children, be that by stopping the abusers or those seeking the abusive content.”
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