'Sex education' actor was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual crimes

Actor Alexander Westwood, known for his role in the Netflix series 'Sex Education', was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of 26 sexual offences.

The victims included minors and students to whom he taught acting classes, the court said.

According to District Attorney Andrew Wallace KC, the actor could have been charged with 77 counts of sexual assault, but the number of charges was reduced to 26 to speed up the judicial process.

“When fame called, he met two 16-year-old girls and used his privileged position to abuse them,” Wallace said. He also indicated the scale of the crimes: “If we were to list all the cases, there would be hundreds of charges.”

During the hearing, Judge Neil Chawla addressed Westwood and emphasised how he used his status to get close to his victims. “You used your celebrity status as an actor to prey on young girls,” he said.

The judge also noted that the defendant attempted to blame the victims, but the jury rejected his version. “However, the jury rejected your denials and rejected your story. Instead, it found that, in fact, as the prosecution claimed, you are a serial predator and that sexual crimes became part of your lifestyle,” he explained.

Another factor in the sentence was Westwood's breach of bail conditions. "I gave a lot of thought to bail, but as an act of mercy to his parents, he was expected to remain at home. Last week he was found in a hotel in clear violation of the terms of his bail so mercifully granted by this court," the judge said.

One of the testimonies in the trial was given by a student of the actor, who declared that she had been sexually assaulted for eight years in her drama classes. According to the court, the events occurred between November 2020 and September 2021.

Westwood was also convicted of “inciting another minor under the age of ten to engage in sexual activity.”

The court found that Westwood used his role as an acting teacher to manipulate his students. In one case, he persuaded a young woman to perform a scene from the series 'Bridgerton', when he sexually assaulted her. Another victim said that "the actor persuaded her to strip naked for a performance of Greek mythology."

Judge Chawla concluded that Westwood had shown no remorse and was a risk to society. “I must convict him of a large number of sexual offences committed over a decade of his life. He showed no remorse and remains a danger to the public. The jury exposed him as a predator and a manipulator,” he said.

The Nation (Argentina) / GDA.

*This content was rewritten with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on information from La Nación (GDA), and was reviewed by a journalist and an editor.