Netflix Actor Begins 15-Year Sentence for Heinous Crimes: Latest on the Alexander Westwood Case

Alexander Westwood, a British actor who appeared in multiple episodes of Netflix’s Sex Education, has been sentenced to 15-and-a-half years in prison after he was found guilty of 26 sex offenses, including against two students he gave acting classes to. Judge Neil Chawla handed out the sentence Tuesday, just months after Westwood, 24, in December was found guilty on all charges by a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court after less than two days of deliberations.

During Tuesday’s sentencing, Chawla said Westwood carried out a “campaign of sexual offending” had “devastating consequences for the five victims,” the BBC reported. The judge added that Westwood displayed a “seemingly nonchalant attitude” that bordered on “arrogance.”

“This was a campaign of sexual offending, lasting just over a decade with devastating consequences. You used your minor celebrity status as an act to prey on impressionable and naive young girls under the guise of acting lessons,” the judge said, per The Independent. “You have failed to show any remorse and you have shown little or no insight into the impact of your offending had on your victims. The jury rejected your story of blaming the victims. You are a serial sexual offender and it became part of your lifestyle.”

Westwood, who also appeared on BBC’s Doctors, reportedly smirked in the dock as the details of his crimes were read out at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Westwood’s five victims included a child whom Westwood was convicted of assaulting over an eight-year period between 2010 and 2018 in what was described as an “extraordinary catalogue of abuse that happened hundreds of times.” Westwood was also convicted of assaulting two teenage girls who came to him for acting lessons who were “forced to act out the most inappropriate scenes.” Jurors heard how Westwood raped and sexually assaulted one of the girls one of the girls between November 2020 and September 2021 and talked to her about a masturbation scene from Bridgerton. When the victim questioned his methods, he told her, “Do what your teacher says.”

During the trial, Westwood was described as “a supreme manipulator” and a “supreme manipulator” whose repeated sexual offending was “a habit, a lifestyle.”

Westwood could have faced 77 charges in total, but prosecutor Andrew Wallace said it would have been “unwieldy” to prosecute. The total number of charges was condensed to 26, with Westwood, who denied the offenses, being found guilty of all of them. His sentences for 11 of the 26 counts were reduced by half because he was a minor when those crimes were committed.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.