A FORMER deputy head at Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s old school has been jailed for paying £65,000 for sick images of children.
Matthew Smith recruited two teens in India to groom then abuse kids in exchange for him paying their school fees.
Matthew Smith has been jailed for 12 years
The vile 35-year-old has now been jailed for 12 years after he admitted 22 counts, including encouraging the rape of a child under 13.
Southwark Crown Court heard Smith was at a school in Nepal and also spent various periods working in orphanages across India between 2007 and 2014.
He moved back to the UK in July 2022 where he was made deputy head of pastoral care at Thomas’s prep school in Battersea.
None of the charges related to the school, which George and Charlotte attended until their move to Windsor in September.
Smith was caught just a few months after he took the job when investigators found he had been sharing material on the dark web.
Police who raided his home then discovered a disturbing cache of evidence.
The “prolific offender” had paid two teenagers based in India a total of £65,398 to abuse children over a five-year period.
Smith would instruct the young men, who he got to know while living in the country, on how to abuse children as young as seven.
Officers also discovered more than 120,000 indecent images of children on a laptop, SD card and on Smith’s phone.
As well as a jail sentence, the paedo was also made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and has been placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Helen Dore, senior officer at the National Crime Agency, said: “Matthew Smith is a prolific offender and master manipulator, who coerced young men into abusing children on his behalf.
“He constantly sought out opportunities to gain access to children, but was adept at hiding his sexual interest in them.
“He conducted his offending while working as a teacher and head of pastoral care – a deep betrayal of the trust placed in him.”
A spokesman for Thomas’s Battersea 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.”
Prince George and Princess Charlotte attended the school but no charges relate to Smith’s time there
