Police worker is guilty of abuse

Lyndon Lewis, aged 58, of Cwmavon Road, Blae-navon, was due to be sentenced today at Cardiff crown court after a jury found him guilty of 22 charges including indecent assault, committing a serious sexual offence and inciting a boy aged 15 to engage in a sexual activity.

An internal Gwent Police inquiry is now also under way.

Former Bermuda police worker Lewis, who was remanded in custody yesterday, had been described as "a pillar of local society".

Judge Christopher Llew-ellyn Jones told him: "In my judgment the jury found you guilty on the clearest and plainest evidence.

"There will be a substantial prison sentence."

Prosecutor Tom Crowther said the abuse started in 1988.

In the 1990s, Lewis began to abuse another teenage boy.

The abuse came to light when, last year, Lewis was drunk in a pub. Mr Crowther said Lewis followed a boy into the lavatory and made an obscene request.

The boy complained to his family, the police were called in and the abuse of other boys came to light.

Throughout the trial, Lewis, who was nicknamed locally'The Vicar' for his upstanding image, strenuously denied all the allegations and said he "utterly and totally refuted them".

His counsel, Ronald Christie, said: "Consider his life, his age, his character.

"He had an exemplary work record and from beginning to end was a pillar of local society.

"He worked for Gwent Police for 20 years, as a magistrate's clerk in Gwent, and was a town clerk.

"He is a lay member of his local church - a person looked up to and trusted."

He said he would go to India with friends after they adopted a Mother Theresa orphanage.

Some time ago he suffered several bouts of depression.

Mr Christie conceded the nature of the offences was grave involving the age of the boys, the period, the abuse of trust and, he said, there must have been an element of corruption.

He said in respect of two of the boys they had got on with their lives and there had been no force, no threats, no physical injury, no bribery.