CALLUM LEWIS FROM BURTON PIDSEA SENTENCED FOR HORRIFIC ABUSE OF EAST YORKSHIRE TEENAGERS

In April 2021, a disturbing case emerged involving Callum Lewis, a 21-year-old man from Gemel Road, Burton Pidsea, who carried out a prolonged and heinous campaign of sexual abuse against eleven teenage girls across East Yorkshire. The offenses spanned over two and a half years, beginning in the summer of 2016 when the victims were as young as 13 and continuing until they reached 18 years of age.

Lewis was charged with a total of 15 child sex offenses. These included eight counts of causing a person under 18 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of sexual assault, three counts of possession of indecent images, and two counts of taking indecent images. The details of his crimes were revealed during a court hearing at Hull Crown Court, where it was established that Lewis used social media platforms to initiate contact with his victims.

Prosecutors explained that Lewis employed manipulative tactics, often feigning sympathy or distress to gain the trust of these young girls. Once contact was established, he coerced them into sending him obscene images or receiving explicit pictures from him. In some instances, he persuaded the victims to meet him in person, leading to sexual assaults. The most egregious act was when Lewis, at the age of 18, took the virginity of a 14-year-old girl in a secluded lay-by near Withernsea, an act that marked a particularly disturbing moment in his offending.

The victims were spread across the entire East Riding and Hull, indicating Lewis’s willingness to travel extensively within the region to carry out his abuse. He would often take the girls in his car to isolated locations where they would be unable to escape or seek help. One victim, only 13 years old, was asked to send explicit images, which Lewis then shared along with pictures of himself masturbating. He also exchanged explicit images with other girls aged up to 15, some of whom responded to his demands by sending similar material.

Further disturbing details emerged during the trial. Lewis coerced a 15-year-old girl into masturbating him in his car at a secluded spot. Court evidence also revealed that he took photographs and videos of young girls under 18 performing oral sex on him and engaging in sexual acts without their knowledge or consent. Victims’ statements read aloud in court conveyed the profound emotional and psychological damage inflicted upon them. Many expressed feelings of shame, hurt, and in some cases, suicidal thoughts as a result of Lewis’s actions.

Following a jury’s guilty verdict, Judge Mark Bury sentenced Lewis to six years in a young offender’s institution. In his sentencing remarks, Judge Bury praised the bravery of the victims for coming forward and condemned Lewis’s actions as utterly depraved. He emphasized that the victims, some as young as 13, were impressionable and vulnerable at the time of the offenses, and that their ability to see the true nature of Lewis’s behavior had grown with time.

Judge Bury described Lewis’s conduct as humiliating, exploitative, and demeaning, carried out solely for his own sexual gratification without regard for the feelings or well-being of the girls involved. He pointed out that Lewis’s pattern of behavior involved abandoning the victims once he had achieved his aims or was unable to do so. The court’s decision reflected the serious harm caused and the need for appropriate punishment to serve as a deterrent against such heinous crimes.