Ex-detective Ryan Coleman-Farrow jailed for sabotaging rape cases

A former Scotland Yard detective was jailed yesterday for
sabotaging a string of rape and sex assault cases by faking
interviews with suspects and falsifying records in a "calculated
abuse" of victims' trust.

Ryan Coleman-Farrow was sentenced to 16 months in prison for scuppering police inquiries, meaning that attacks reported by victims ranging from a 14-year-old boy to a 96-year-old woman were not properly investigated. The former detective constable failed to follow up basic inquiries, ignored potential evidence from CCTV footage and made up statements by witnesses, and then lied to some of those victims about the outcome of their cases, telling them that prosecutors had decided against pressing charges.

The 30-year-old was described by investigators as a "rogue" policeman who deliberately misled his superiors in the Metropolitan Police's Sapphire sex crime investigation unit. Scotland Yard said it had tightened up procedures but a group representing victims said it would seek further assurances that individual officers could not bring down inquiries in future.

The force is prepared for further criticism of the way it has handled sex crime allegations. The police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, is due to report shortly on the failings of one south London Sapphire team between 2008 and 2009, while another officer is under inquiry for allegations said to be similar to those faced by Coleman-Farrow.

Mark Heywood, prosecuting, told Southwark Crown Court yesterday that 13 cases were effectively shut down by Coleman-Farrow's interventions, as he sought to "cover his own failings and lack of capacity".

The falsehoods had the effect of reducing his workload between 2007 and 2010 while he was based with the Kingston upon Thames Sapphire team in south-west London. Thirty-two cases had to be re-examined. Coleman-Farrow, who admitted 13 counts of misconduct in public office at a hearing last month, was sacked last year.

The cases included an alleged attack on a 96-year-old woman by her son, a reported indecent assault on a 14-year-old boy during a school lesson, and an alleged attack by a restaurant waiter on a 15-year-old girl.

His deceptions meant that rapes had no realistic chance of conviction despite being looked at again by detectives. In the one case that came to court, a man accused of raping a woman during a student party was found not guilty by a jury.

Coleman-Farrow was told by the trial judge that he was behind "calculated" conduct that made prosecutions impossible. "The effect that this sort of conduct has on public confidence should not be underestimated," said Judge Alistair McCreath.

The Sapphire unit was overhauled in 2009 following the conviction of one of Britain's most prolific sex attackers, the black cab driver John Worboys, who was found to have continued attacking women after officers did not believe some victims' claims.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said yesterday women should have confidence in reporting sex crimes to the police. However the group Rape Crisis questioned the police watchdog's description of Coleman-Farrow as a "rogue" officer and said Met had to demonstrate that there could be no repeat of such falsifications.

"It seems too easy to say it's a rogue individual," said Dianne Whitfield a board member of Rape Crisis. "We want to see the evidence that actually this wasn't about systemic failings."

Coleman-Farrow was being investigated by the force in 2010 but the case was handed over to the police watchdog after two sex workers killed themselves. One of them, Jaime Perlman, accused a team headed by Coleman-Farrow of failing to investigate properly her complaints about a stalker. An inquest cleared Coleman-Farrow of wrongdoing in that case.

The victims: denied justice

They were aged from 14 to 96. They were schoolchildren, students, vulnerable adults and pensioners. What they had in common was that they were denied any justice because their files crossed the desk of Ryan Coleman-Farrow.

Most of them complained of rape, including one woman who arrived at a police station in the early hours of the morning barely able to walk. She named her alleged attacker and played back a voicemail from him in which he requested her to take the morning-after pill because he "could not be responsible for a baby".

The inquiry went nowhere after Coleman-Farrow failed to interview witnesses, did not recover CCTV footage and made up a meeting with the Crown Prosecution Service.

The court heard Coleman-Farrow also failed to interview professional carers who reported arriving for a home visit to discover a highly distressed 96-year-old woman. Her son was suspected of sexually abusing her. Coleman-Farrow failed to send scientific samples for analysis. The woman died within a year of the alleged attack.

Similar deceptions were repeated in a series of cases run by Coleman-Farrow that were never fully investigated: a 18-year-old student allegedly raped after going to another man's room, a women allegedly attacked by former partners, and a woman who said she'd become pregnant after being raped. She had been told police would be in contact for a DNA test of her baby to try to identify the suspect. They did not.

Only sixteen months for such serious offenses? i thought sentences were meant to be more severe when the offender was in a position of trust as a policemen is.

How do officers like this get appointed in the first place?

And who the heck was supposed to be supervising this 'rogue' policeman?

Madness.

He deprived a few victims from justice and all he got is 16 months.

Tony Bennett wrote:How do officers like this get appointed in the first place?
And who the heck was supposed to be supervising this 'rogue' policeman?

Morning Tony,
Have a look at his picture in the papers.
The answers may become obvious.
I saw it only too often during my service.

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He certainly looks the sort you wouldn't want to meet on a dark night.

PeterMac wrote:

Tony Bennett wrote:How do officers like this get appointed in the first place?
And who the heck was supposed to be supervising this 'rogue' policeman?

Morning Tony,
Have a look at his picture in the papers.
The answers may become obvious.
I saw it only too often during my service.

What's wrong with the way he looks?

I question how he was able to get away with his wicked deeds. Do these sort of "officers" not have superiors who supervise their work?

Is Peter trying to say that his superiors were afraid to discipline him as he is a Policeman of colour and they are prepared to let incompetents carry on rather than possibly be accused of racism.

I have known that situation to arise in places where I have worked - people have been allowed to get away with things because of a fear of being called racist.

I think it is more true of workers in the public sector. I saw it too whilst working for various Government departments.

Yes I agree. The majority of my working life was with a local council though I also worked for the Inland Revenue for 7 years.

An officer from the sub-continent was promoted during the era of 'inclusivity' and 'political correctness' though his credentials were suspect, and less than some who were not promoted in that round
His English was very heavily accented. Face to face he was intelligible, but on the radio he was almost impossible to understand.
He was put in charge of a shift in the City centre.
After some weeks his crew grew more and more worried that their constant "I'm sorry, Sarge, could you repeat that" was being seen as racist and mocking.
They began to fear for their safety,
They tried to talk to the Inspector about the problem, but he too was bound by PC, and was powerless.
One Friday night, at 9:55, after briefing, the entire shift simply got up and went home.
A Mutiny, in fact,.
Dereliction of duty, misconduct in a public office, you name it.
Incredibly serious offences.
The shift was broken up and they were sent off to different stations in neighbouring divisions. I got one, which is how I know.

NOT ONE of those officers was disciplined. They received avuncular "words of advice".

The Sgt was taken to HQ and a short time later allowed to resign with an enormous, off the books, payout, - handled by the same ACC who had promoted him.

The mere threat of being accused of Racism has a crushing effect on organisations, and prevents giving proper service to the public.
At one point in its history Nottingham had appointed 8 'minority ' officers.
4 were in prison.

PM wrote:
The mere threat of being accused of Racism has a crushing effect on
organisations, and prevents giving proper service to the public.

Its very frustrating to work with people like that who set back the service of fellow workers and organisations.
Sadly there are always a few awful ones like that or in similar fashion in every work place but no where more pronounced than the police force or so I was told by my cooper friends.

It's precisely the contemptible behavior of the minority that can cause their colleagues to lose respect for them yet if one is not careful one can be labelled racist. Awful position to be in if caught up in that situation.

It is. Because 'positive action' then actually causes or enhances the very racism it was designed to combat.
And don't even start me on sexism !

Combating crimes is bad enough, combating poor work ethics and fellow workers' atrocious thuggish mentality is even worst.

It's an internal battle that is very demoralising. I know the horrible feeling.

A very close friend of mine on the force, who is black, was actually pleased when he got turned down for promotion to Inspector on the first occasion !