A FORMER deputy head teacher at a prominent London school previously attended by royals has pleaded guilty to financially rewarding Indian teenagers for sending him indecent images of children.
Matthew Smith, 34, from East Dulwich, admitted to 22 charges, including having instructed teenagers in India online to abuse younger children while he was working in Nepal.
The “prolific offender” who appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday (20) will be sentenced on August 4.
Smith, who briefly worked at the £20,000-a-year Thomas’s Battersea school in London where Prince George and Princess Charlotte once studied, was arrested in November last year after investigators discovered that he had been sharing abuse material on the dark web during his stay in Nepal.
He was online at the time of his arrest, speaking to a boy living in India and asking him to send sexual images of a younger child, in return for money, the National Crime Agency said.
Officers recovered more than 120,000 indecent images of children which the Oxford University graduate had saved on a laptop, SD card and on his phone.
Smith was remanded in custody, charged with five offences, including causing the sexual exploitation of a child under 13.
Investigators established that Smith had paid the boy and another teenager, also based in India, £65,398 to abuse children over five years.
He worked in orphanages and non-governmental organisations across India between 2007-2014 before he shifted to Nepal where taught at Kathmandu's British School.
He returned to London in July 2022 and started working at Thomas’s Battersea where he was a deputy head teacher and head of pastoral care before he was fired two months later.
Investigators found that Smith would instruct the young men via chat logs to perform sexual acts on boys and would send them images and videos as examples of ones he would like to receive in return.
He also told one of them how to befriend children and build their trust with a view to abuse them, the NCA said.
Information and evidence of potential offending by Smith against children while working in India have been shared with relevant law enforcement partners.
However, there is no evidence to suggest he committed offences against children based in Nepal or Britain.
Claire Brinton, a specialist in the Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit of the Crown Prosecution Service said Smith’s crimes were “particularly disturbing” given his role as a primary school teacher.
“Thousands of images and videos were recovered from his devices which showed an appalling catalogue of sexual abuse being perpetrated on children,” she said.
A Thomas’s Battersea spokesperson said the school was “shocked and appalled beyond measure” by Smith’s actions and thanked the investigators for bringing him to justice.
His employment at the school, which began in September 2022, was terminated soon after it learned of the charges against him in November, the spokesperson said.
Ex-teacher of Prince George's former school admits to sex offences against Indian children
Matthew Smith paid two Indian boys £65,398 to abuse children while he was working in Nepal
Dharavi slum in Mumbai
During the hearing, Clifford denied all the charges except for the rape charge, which was added to the indictment at the session. (Photo: Hertfordshire Police /Handout via REUTERS)
Man pleads not guilty to murder of BBC presenter's family
A 26-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering the wife and two daughters of BBC sports commentator John Hunt in a crossbow and knife attack.
Kyle Clifford, who also faces charges of rape, appeared via video link at Cambridge Crown Court on Thursday.
Clifford, arrested in July after a manhunt, is charged with three counts of murder, one count each of rape and false imprisonment, and two counts of possessing offensive weapons – a 10-inch knife and a crossbow.
During the hearing, Clifford denied all the charges except for the rape charge, which was added to the indictment at the session.
He is expected to enter a plea for that charge at a later date.
The victims were Carol Hunt, 61, wife of horseracing commentator John Hunt, and their daughters Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28.
An earlier hearing revealed that Louise had been found tied up and that both she and her sister had been shot with a crossbow, while their mother had been stabbed with a knife.
The fatal attack occurred at the family’s home in Bushey, a commuter town near Watford, northwest of London.
(With inputs from AFP)