Met Police officer jailed for 16 years for raping fellow officer and teenager

A former Met police officer, Adam Provan, has been jailed for 16 years on eight counts of raping a teenage girl and a female police officer between 2003 and 2010.

The 44-year-old was convicted in June this year after being found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl he met on a blind date in 2010, and raping a fellow police officer.

Provan was in a relationship with the police officer between 2003 and 2005. During the trial, she explained how she feared Provan would kill her.

The woman, who is still a police officer, first filed a complaint with the Met about stalking and harassment by Provan in 2005. However, her colleagues were more worried about saving one of their own than helping the woman.

"I find it highly troubling that [the officer's] colleagues in the Metropolitan police in 2004-05 were more concerned about looking out for 'one of their own' than in taking her seriously and investigating her complaints about you. Had they done so, it may be that [the second victim] would have been spared the ordeal she has had to go through," said Judge Noel Lucas KC while hearing the case.

The judge added that Provan showed a "cold-blooded and chilling entitlement to sex" and behaved as if everything was "completely normal." The Met Police's inaction in the case led Provan to rape 16-year-old Lauren Taylor in 2010. He lied to her about his age and took her to the woods after making plans to go to the cinema.

"Basically, he raped me. I remember holding on to the tree. I was kind of hugging the tree like emotional support, pretended I was anywhere else in the world but back there. I remember it can't have been long, but it felt like a long time," she said as she narrated her ordeal.

Taylor has waived her right to stay anonymous and wants to share her story so other women do not feel scared of coming forward, per a BBC report.

Met Police and its not-so-spotless history:

Recently, a review of the force's conduct by Baroness Louise Casey made some explosive revelations about the Met Police and its conduct over the years.

It claimed that the organisation failed to protect not only members of the public but its female staff members as well. The report found the force to be "institutionally racist, misogynistic, and homophobic."

"The Met has not protected its female employees or members of the public from police perpetrators of domestic abuse, nor those who abuse their position for sexual purposes," read the 363-page report.

The review was launched in February 2022, and Casey, a member of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, was appointed to investigate its institutional culture.

It revealed how speaking up against the wrongs within the institution was not welcomed. "Keeping your head down, looking the other way, and telling people – especially senior officers – what they want to hear is the way things are done in the Met," added the report.

The report went on to add that as many as 22 per cent of staff and officers experienced bullying. And that there is "deep-seated" homophobia within the Met. Female officers claimed that they routinely faced sexism and misogyny.

The Met Police Department also launched a separate review of the conduct of its officers after David Carrick's case hit the headlines last year. More than 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers and staff were accused of being involved in sexual and domestic abuse, per the review carried out by the force itself.

Former Met Police officer David Carrick was jailed for life in February for dozens of rapes and sexual assaults. Carrick carried out these crimes over two decades, and the police failed to take any action against him.