Spain‘s supreme court has upheld the 135-year prison sentence handed to a British teacher and nanny who created and distributed pornography featuring children in his care after changing his name following previous convictions.

Ben David Rose legally changed his identity after his conviction on child pornography charges in Britain, meaning that he did not appear as a registered sex offender during background checks in Spain.

Rose, previously known as Ben David Lewis, received a two-year suspended sentence in June 2016 for the child pornography offences in the English city of St Albans.

In August of that same year, with a new name and passport, he was working as a nanny in the Spanish city of Zaragoza, before moving to Madrid to nanny for two more young children and work as an English teacher at a private school.

When police later searched his phone, they found dozens of photos and videos of him with girls as young as six inside a classroom.

Rose was also convicted of photographing three children under 10 years old naked or in their underwear and distributing the images on the dark web from his time as a nanny in Zaragoza.

The Spanish supreme court upheld Rose’s conviction and sentence in a lower court on child pornography offences, dozens of offences linked to disclosure of secrets, and a single conviction for a ‘crime against moral integrity’. The total length of sentence totalled 135 years.

The verdict in his appeal comes at a time of heightened scrutiny for private schools in Spain, as police investigate how a lunch monitor at a French school in Barcelona was able to initiate sexual contact with children as young as five.

UK campaigners, including The Safeguarding Alliance charity, are lobbying the UK Government to amend the law on name changes.

‘Existing laws are enabling offenders to work around the system, free to obscure their identity without being monitored,’ the charity has said.

The three judges who originally convicted and imprisoned the offender found him guilty of eight counts of making child pornography, a crime of inflicting degrading treatment on another person, 32 privacy offences and one count of forgery.

As well as being handed a lengthy prison sentence, he was also ordered to pay his victims compensation ranging from £2,500 to just over £5,000 each.

The Brit paedophile changed his name by deed poll the day after his conviction. 

The judges called the Brit pervert’s crimes ‘serious’ in their lengthy written ruling, adding: ‘It’s going to be very difficult for the children’s parents to return to the situation they were in before the offender committed them, even though they receive economic compensation.’

Detectives said specialist police in the Australian city of Queensland had tipped them off about a ‘sexual predator’ they believed was in Spain who they identified following a complex probe slowed down by the suspect’s encryption techniques.

They revealed he had a criminal record in his native UK and accused him of targeting 36 children aged four to eight after tricking his way into the Spanish education system – but didn’t name him or go into detail about how he allegedly duped the system.

Ben David Lewis, as he was known before he left the UK, was arrested in August 2015 after a worker at a summer camp he founded, LL Camps in Bushey, Hertfordshire, found naked photos of children as young as three on his iPhone.

Sandra Vicente told St Albans Crown Court she felt like her brain had been ‘polluted’ after chancing upon the snaps.

She was given the phone and entry PIN by the then-26-year-old to play music at a children’s party but found the images in the deleted items after ‘getting nosey’ and went to police.

Officers found a pair of child’s underwear next to his laptop as well as videos he had taken by pointing his camera up the skirt of a young girl he was tutoring.

Prosecutor Ann Evans said police found searches on one of his iPod Touches such as ‘Can a sex offender go to the USA?, ‘Accidental downloading child porn’ and ‘How do police search computers?’

He pleaded guilty to three counts of downloading indecent images and one of taking indecent images but was spared prison after claiming he wanted to get married and have children.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender indefinitely.

The American-style summer camp he set up with a friend was closed down by Ofsted.

The Greek pilot who killed his British wife, Caroline Crouch, in May 2021 has convinced his parents to testify in his defence as he appeals his life sentence.

At an appeal hearing in Athens today he told the court ‘I regret what I did’ and apologised to the family of his late wife.

Babis Anagnostopoulos, 35, was sentenced to 27-and-a-half years for strangling his wife, 20, in front of their infant child at their home in Glyka Nera, Greece.

The 34-year-old staged a crime scene, where he tied himself up and hanged the couple’s dog, Roxy, from a bannister in a bid to throw police off the scent. 

Babis appeared at court after the trial was postponed when his defence lawyer, Alexandros Papaioannidis, fell sick and was unable to attend on 24 April.

Babis is looking to convince the court that the murder of his wife was not premeditated but a ‘heat of the moment’ act. 

‘Babis’ Anagnostopoulos was found guilty of the pre-meditated murder of his wife and sentenced to 27 and a half years in prison in 2022 for the crimes.

He had claimed that burglars had broken into the couple’s home in East Attica, killing the dog, Roxy, in an apparent effort to make the crime look more realistic.

Babis was given a 27-and-a-half year prison sentence in May last year for the crimes.

This included a jail term of 11 years and six months for the killing of Roxy, as well as a 21,000 euro fine (£18,316).

For the murder of his wife, he received a life sentence.

After the sentencing was passed, his lawyer said the outcome was ‘expected’.

But Babis has sought to reduce the sentence on the basis that, he claims, the killing was not premeditated.

In February, Crouch’s family spoke out against the appeal.

Her father said: ‘It is absolutely despicable that my daughter’s killer is trying to get his prison sentence reduced because of his ‘good behaviour.’

‘The crime committed by the murderer, that of femicide, is a heinous crime that should deserve particularly severe punishment. 

‘In my opinion, men who kill their wives, for whatever reason, are the lowest of the low, ranking alongside paedophiles.’

Babis will now call his parents and another four witnesses to take the stand in his defence during the appeal.  

Ahead of today’s hearing, defence lawyer Alexandros Papaioannides said: ‘There are going to be quite a lot of new witnesses and documents that will contain elements that will help reverse this case. 

‘I think there will be a more correct assessment [by the court] of the circumstances that prevailed that day in regards to the crime he committed and whether it was committed in the heat of the moment.’

Babis’ lawyer, Alexandros Papaioannidis, has previously argued his client is a ‘model prisoner’ who ‘reads a lot and works in the prison canteen’ and should not be punished for a crime ‘that was never premeditated.’ 

The state coroner has said that Crouch would have suffered ‘a long and agonising death’.

She was pinned down by the pilot as she slept in the couple’s Athens maisonette, resisting as she attempted to fight back as he suffocated her for five minutes with a pillow.