A former police officer in London was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday for raping a teenager and a colleague for several years. The judge questioned his superiors’ response amid a crisis of confidence in the police force.
Adam Provan, 44, was convicted in June of twice raping a 16-year-old girl in 2010 and six times raping a Metropolitan Police colleague between 2003 and 2005.
The police officer felt a “fascination bordering on an obsession with young women” that predated his crimes and showed “not the slightest bit of remorse,” Judge Noel Lucas said in his decision at Wood Green Crown Court London.
Adam Provan was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape of the teenager in 2018 and was released by the police the following year.
But three years later he was released on bail when an appeals court decided to hold a new trial adding to the rape allegations against his colleague.
“Your actions have dishonored the police,” said the judge, who also described the way in which the official hierarchy had dealt with his colleague’s initial complaints against him as “shocking” and “appalling”.
The people handling these complaints “were more concerned with caring about their own grievances than taking them seriously,” he claimed, adding that the 16-year-old victim could have been spared if the investigation was done properly would have been carried out.
Several scandals involving police officers have undermined the London police force in recent years, such as the February conviction of former police officer David Carrick, who was sentenced to life in prison for dozens of rapes and sexually assaulting 12 women.
Police missed nine opportunities to apprehend this serial rapist who had been allowed to rampage for 17 years.
Less than two years earlier, 33-year-old Londoner Sarah Everard was raped and killed by a police officer. That agent, Wayne Couzens, was also sentenced to life in prison and police were accused of ignoring alarming signals about his behavior.