A top-ranking teacher at a primary school that educated Prince George and Princess Charlotte has admitted paying thousands of pounds to Indian teenagers in return for sexually explicit images of children.
Matthew Smith, 34, from East Dulwich in London, today pleaded guilty to a further 18 counts of child sex abuse, including paying more than £65,000 to coerce teenagers in India into abusing children.
The ex-deputy headteacher at Thomas’s prep school on Battersea High Street, south west London, was fired from the £20,000 a year prep school that taught Prince George and Princess Charlotte after allegations first emerged last November.
The Oxford University graduate previously worked in orphanages and NGOs across India from 2007-2014 before taking up a job as an assistant headteacher at a British school in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, from 2017 and July 2022.
Smith has now pleaded guilty to a total of 22 charges after investigators raided his London home last November to find him asking a teenager in India to send him sexual images of a younger child, police said.
Matthew Smith, 34, (pictured) today pleaded guilty to 18 counts of child sex abuse at Southwark Crown Court
The teacher also had Dark Web sites and forums open on his computer dedicated to child sexual abuse, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Detectives subsequently analysed chat logs and bank transactions to reveal Smith paid the same teen, and another also living in India, a total of £65,398 to abuse children over a five-year period.
Before working at the school in Nepal, Smith spent various periods working in orphanages and NGOs across India between 2007 until 2014.
He then moved back to the UK last July and began working at Thomas’s prep in September, where he was a deputy head teacher and head of pastoral care, before being sacked from the school two months later when he was charged by police.
Chat logs showed Smith would order the young men to perform sexual acts on boys and send them images and videos as examples of ones he would like to see re-enacted.
The prep school teacher also gave one of the teenagers advice on befriending children and building their trust in order to abuse them, police said.
Potential of his crimes was first found while Smith was working in India, but there is nothing to suggest he committed abuse against children based in Nepal or the UK, the NCA said.
Following a raid on Smith’s south east London home, officers found over 120,000 indecent images of children saved on his laptop, a SD card and on his phone.
Prosecutors charged him with a total of 22 offences, including encouraging the rape of a child under 13, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and arranging the sexual abuse of a child.
He today pleaded guilty to 17 counts at Southwark Crown Court having previously admitted five counts at a hearing in November.
Matthew Smith previously worked as a deputy head teacher at Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s £20,000 a year Thomas’s prep school in Battersea, south west London (pictured)
Helen Dore, senior officer of the National Crime Agency, said: ‘Matthew Smith was a high risk individual and we moved quickly to locate, arrest and remand him so he could no longer pose a threat to children.
‘Ultimately, we were able to prove that he was a prolific offender who manipulated young men to sexually abuse children on his behalf, giving them detailed instructions and financial reward.
‘While conducting his offending, Smith worked at a school in Nepal, then became a deputy head teacher and head of pastoral care in the UK, so his offending is a deep betrayal of the trust placed in him.’
None of the offences relate to his job at the £20,000-a-year Thomas’s primary school, which was attended by Prince George and Princess Charlotte until the end of the last academic year.
Both royal children have now moved to Lambrook School, near Ascot in Berkshire, and had left by the time Smith started work in September.
Claire Brinton, specialist prosecutor in the CPS’s Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, branded Smith’s crimes ‘particularly disturbing’ given he was a primary school teacher.
She said after the hearing today: ‘Matthew Smith’s crimes are particularly disturbing given his role as a primary school teacher entrusted with the responsibility of caring for and safeguarding children.
‘Thousands of images and videos were recovered from his devices which showed an appalling catalogue of sexual abuse being perpetrated on children.
‘Smith offered individuals payments for indecent images to gratify his own sexual desires, which resulted in the horrifying abuse of young children in India.
‘This conviction sends a clear message that the CPS, working alongside the NCA and international partners, will work to bring to justice those who sexually abuse and exploit children, wherever that abuse takes place.’
Oxford University graduate Mathew Smith (pictured) previously worked for NGOs and orphanages in India and at a British school in Nepal
Before his role at Thomas’s, Smith was assistant head teacher at the British School in Kathmandu, Nepal, for five years.
He also taught at the St Paul’s School in London, which charges fees of £44,000 a year, and has degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge universities.
A Thomas’s school spokesperson said: ‘We have been shocked and appalled beyond measure by this matter and are grateful for the work of the police and courts in bringing this man to account.
‘Mr Smith’s employment at the school, which commenced in September 2022, was terminated with immediate effect when the school first learned of the charges against him in November.
‘While the National Crime Agency has confirmed that none of the matters under investigation related to the school or its pupils, these deplorable actions constitute an unforgivable breach of trust and our thoughts are with those who have been impacted or damaged by them.
‘As always, we remain absolutely committed to the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our pupils and our whole school community.’
Smith will be sentenced at the same court next month.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12215569/Ex-deputy-head-Prince-George-Princess-Charlottes-school-admits-22-child-sex-abuse-charges.html
