wo former police constables have been jailed for misconduct after forming inappropriate sexual relationships or partaking in sexual exercise with girls they met on obligation.
Former West Midlands Police officers Anthony Ritchie, 46, and Steven Walters, 55, in July had been discovered responsible at Birmingham Crown Court docket of two counts of misconduct.
Their 12-day trial was informed they focused the identical sufferer, who has since skilled a “large” affect on her psychological well being.
Ritchie, of East Meadway, Tile Cross, Birmingham, was jailed for 4 years by Decide Roderick Henderson on Thursday.
I can not perceive how any respectable human being may do what he did. He has completely ruined my life
Walters, of Winster Inexperienced, Newhall, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, appeared within the dock alongside his former colleague and was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Walters beforehand served a four-year sentence for sexually assaulting two totally different girls in 2015 while on obligation, the courtroom was informed.
Passing sentence, Decide Henderson thanked the Unbiased Workplace for Police Conduct (IOPC) for its “exemplary” inquiry into the 2 males.
The choose added: “Above all I’m grateful to the three complainants on this case – these had been courageous girls who got here ahead and stood up for themselves and their neighborhood.
“They, above all, deserve our thanks. The results of sexual offending are by no means over as soon as the act stops – they proceed to ripple out, typically for years.”
The courtroom was informed one of many prices in opposition to Walters and one other in opposition to Ritchie associated to the identical lady, whose sufferer affect assertion stated of the previous: “I can’t perceive how any respectable human being may do what he did.
Abuse of place for a sexual function is a type of severe corruption, which has the potential to affect public confidence in policing
“He has completely ruined my life. He has modified the individual I’m.”
Proof gathered by the IOPC indicated that Ritchie started an inappropriate sexual relationship with the lady in 2014 after he responded to a reported home violence incident.
The inquiries indicated he despatched her messages from his private cellphone and so they had intercourse after he arrested her accomplice, who was then remanded in custody.
Throughout their relationship, she informed him she had been pressured into oral intercourse by then-Laptop Walters, who had gone to her residence on his personal to take care of alleged home abuse.
In Might 2021, one other lady got here ahead to say she had a relationship with Ritchie in 2014 after he requested for a date, having gone to her residence in a bid to arrest her son.
Commenting after the ex-officers had been jailed, IOPC regional director Derrick Campbell stated: “Abuse of place for a sexual function is a type of severe corruption, which has the potential to affect public confidence in policing.
“These now former officers would have been effectively conscious of the vulnerability of the ladies they concerned themselves with and but they selected to use that for their very own acquire.
“Their disgraceful actions don’t have any place in policing and so they have paid a heavy worth by shedding their liberty. It sends a really clear message that this sort of predatory behaviour is not going to be tolerated.”
Ritchie was dismissed with out discover for discreditable conduct at an accelerated listening to held by West Midlands Police on September 14.