Alexander Westwood, who starred in Netflix's teen comedy series Sex Education, was jailed for 15 and a half years for attacking five victims. Photo / Getty Images
Alexander Westwood, who starred in Netflix's teen comedy series Sex Education, was jailed for 15 and a half years for attacking five victims. Photo / Getty Images
Actor Alexander Westwood was jailed for 15 and a half years for attacking five victims.
Westwood used his celebrity status to manipulate and abuse young girls, starting from age 10.
Once released, he will spend four years on licence and a restraining order bans him from contacting his victims for 26 years.
A Sex Education actor used his “minor celebrity status” to sexually assault “impressionable” young girls, a court heard.
Alexander Westwood, 24, was jailed for 15 and a half years for attacking five victims, four of whom were children.
The actor was found to have raped a teenage girl and carried out his first attack when he was just 10 years old.
He smirked in the dock of Wolverhampton Crown Court as details of his crimes were read out by the prosecution.
Westwood, who also starred in the BBC’s Doctors series, forced pupils in his drama class to engage in role-play scenarios while naked, including one who was made to strip while reading a monologue by Ophelia from Hamlet.
He also filmed one aspiring actress naked on his iPad, before trying to bill her family for £18,000 ($40,000) when she started missing his lessons after he sexually abused her.
The sex offender would also create “game shows” with children, forcing them to watch pornography and undress.
Westwood was described as a “supreme manipulator” who used his stardom to prey on victims.
Alexander Westwood, not in the picture, starred in Netflix's teen comedy series Sex Education. Photo / Netflix.
He was convicted in December and jailed at the same court this week. There was spontaneous applause from the public gallery when the sentencing finished.
Once released, he will spend four years on licence and a restraining order bans him from contacting his victims for 26 years. He was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same amount of time.
‘Nonchalant attitude’
Westwood, from Albrighton, Shropshire, was already remanded in custody before the hearing after breaking the conditions of his bail.
Judge Neil Chawla told him: “You used your minor celebrity status as an actor to prey on impressionable, innocent and naive young girls.
“Throughout your trial your nonchalant attitude bordered on arrogance.
“However, the jury rejected your denials and rejected your story of blaming the victims, and found that, as the prosecution stated, you are a serial predator and that sexual offending became part of your lifestyle.”
He added: “The lead offence is rape, you were supposed to be teaching her, you were paid. This is an abuse of trust.”
Andrew Wallace KC, prosecuting, said Westwood could have been charged with 77 serious sexual assaults but for ease of sentencing this had been reduced to 26 counts.
His trial heard how he sexually abused a boy, one girl multiple times and raped a teenage actress.
The first of the 26 sex offences relates to his tenth birthday – the age at which criminality begins in the UK – when one victim was aged just six.
Westwood, who had a “fascination” with pornography, also forced a girl to drink his urine during a campaign of abuse.
‘Seven years of abuse’
One victim, who suffered over seven years of abuse totalling 36 assaults, told the court: “I have a reoccurring nightmare Alexander Westwood is standing above me”.
Another victim, who Westwood raped during acting classes, said: “I hate taking a shower, I hate having to touch my body to wash.
“No matter how long I wash, I still feel dirty. As soon as I get in, I want to get out.”
James Bloomer KC, mitigating, said: “This defendant is a young man and these crimes happened when he was even younger.
