Francis Lewis sent sexual messages to a ‘boy’ on Snapchat(Image: PA)
A university chemistry professor who sent sexual Snapchat messages to who he thought was a 14-year-old boy before discussing meeting in a hotel has avoided jail. Francis Lewis’s career was left in tatters after he started communicating with the ‘youngster’, who was actually an undercover police officer.
As previously reported on Chroniclelive, a court heard that, despite being told the child’s age, the 49-year-old continued to send explicit messages, talked about meeting in a hotel and discussed the sexual acts they could do together. After two months of contact on Snapchat, Lewis eventually ended their conversations by stating he wanted to wait until the boy was 16, prosecutors said.
Lewis, of Croydon Road, in Arthur’s Hill, was arrested and pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child during a previous hearing at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court. His case was adjourned for the preparation of a pre-sentence report and Lewis has now returned to the same court to learn his fate.
Magistrates gave the pervert an 18-month community order and told him he must do 200 hours of unpaid work. He must also sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same period.
He was also fined £199. At the previous court hearing in January, Leeanne Pearce, prosecuting, said Lewis began chatting with the decoy on March 25 last year. Mrs Pearce continued: “The defendant is a university professor who engaged with an undercover operative on Snapchat. The undercover operative makes it clear that he is 14, almost 15.
“The defendant engages in conversation throughout, which is sexual in nature. At one point, there was discussion about arranging to meet in a hotel and the defendant makes sexually explicit comments about what they could do together.”
The court heard that, on May 8, Lewis told the decoy that he wanted to end their conversations and wait until he had turned 16, however, the damage had been done and Lewis was arrested soon after.
Ian Hudson, defending, said Lewis had no passed convictions, had pleaded guilty and had now lost his job as a university professor. Mr Hudson added: “He did disengage with the child. This is also an attempted sexual communication as no child actually existed.”
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