Lancashire police sex crimes shock (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Lancashire police sex crimes shock

8:00am Monday 17th January 2011 in News By Sam Chadderton, Reporter

RESPONSE: Police say allegations are taken very seriously

ONLY one police officer out of 74 accused of sex crimes has been jailed in the past six years.

Many Lancashire officers and staff did, however, resign or were sacked without charges.

But others faced no further action, it can be revealed.

The Police Federation said officers were often the subject of ‘malicious allegations’, but a trustee at a leading rape and abuse centre said she was concerned police bosses were turning a ‘blind eye’ hoping the issue would ‘go away’.

Now an MP is urging the home secretary Theresa May to bring in stricter monitoring of police officers accused of any crime.

Over the past six years, PCs, sergeants and other constabulary employees have been accused of sexual offences including rape, sexual assault, possessing indecent images, sexual activity with a child and sending indecent images through the post.

Of the 74 accused, 28 faced no further action. A further third, 27 people, either resigned or were dismissed, with eight given warnings or disciplinary action and nine facing court.

The rest, including some of the more recent allegations, are still pending.

Incidents included:

• An officer from Clitheroe being reported for having sexually assaulted a 20-year-old man and for having indecent images on his home computer. No further action was taken on the assault claim, but he resigned over the images allegation and was later given a suspended sentence.
• A Darwen PC given a written warning after a complaint was made that he had been trying to engage a 40-year-old woman in a sexual relationship over a period of time and had abused his position.
• A member of police staff accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl in Burnley. He resigned less than a month later and was eventually given a caution for sexual activity with a child.
• Four years ago, an officer was dismissed for sexually assaulting a 54-year-old woman at her home in Whittle-le-Woods after police had been called to deal with an incident. The officer never faced any charges.
• In a case last month, Heysham community beat manager Lance Thompson, 46, was jailed for downloading child porn on his home computer.

Charities such as Rape Crisis have responded to the figures by saying the public expect sex cases involving police to be ‘prosecuted rigorously’ but instead ‘forces are quietly losing staff in the hope the issue will go away’.

Trustee Jo Wood, from the Merseyside Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, said police bosses were ‘turning a blind eye’.

She said: “There is still a massive stigma to being convicted of this kind of serious offence, which is why it would appear that police are trying to get people out of the picture as quickly as possible so they don’t have convicted officers. “I would suggest that this situation is exactly the same as at other big organisations where people would be horrified to bring a conviction on to their profession.”

Rachel Baines, vice-chairman of the Lancashire Police Federation, said police officers could face the problem of ‘malicious allegations’.

She said: “I strongly believe that all cases are taken seriously and thoroughly investigated.

“In my experience the CPS make no allowances for the fact the accused is a police officer and substantiated cases are taken to CPS, which is quite right.

“Resigning does not mean an officer escapes prosecution, although you have to remember that the burden of proof in misconduct cases is much lower than the criminal standard, which is why you may see officers facing misconduct proceedings, but not criminal proceedings.

Supt Martyn Leveridge, head of Lancashire’s professional standards department, said: “We take complaints of this nature very seriously and have a duty to thoroughly investigate any allegations made to us.

"The public quite rightly demands very high standards of its police service, and we are aiming to consistently deliver a service that meets those expectations.”

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said he had raised the issue of police officers accused of any crime in Parliament following the conviction of Nelson officer Salim Razaq, who ran an organised crime gang.

He said: “I asked for statistics of how many officers are accused of crimes and how many are convicted and was told those statistics are not kept.

“I am shocked at these new figures as any officer accused of a crime should undergo the same legal process anyone else would.

"Any suggestion that it can be handled away from the courts is wrong.”