Sufferer speaks out after being raped by Met Police officer on ‘date from hell’

Rape sufferer Lauren Taylor has spoken out after being attacked by a Metropolitan Police officer on a ‘date from hell’ when she was simply 16.

Adam Provan was nearly twice her age when the pair met in 2010. But he lied to her and mentioned he was 22, promising to take her on a date on the cinema.

But first, he informed her, he wished to go for a stroll in a park in Romford, east London. Instead, Provan took Lauren to a woodland space and raped her.

More than a decade later, Provan has been sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court for his crime. The former Met officer, 44, from Newmarket in Suffolk, was jailed for 16 years.

He will spend an extra eight years on licence for 2 counts of rape in opposition to Lauren, in addition to six counts of raping a feminine police officer. It has nevertheless taken a number of years – and three trials – for Lauren to see her attacker jailed.

An preliminary trial in 2018 resulted in Provan being jailed for 9 years. He was dismissed from the Met Police a 12 months later.

Provan was nevertheless launched after the court docket of enchantment ordered a retrial. At the recent trial Lauren gave proof for a 3rd time and 6 extra expenses of rape, referring to Provan’s earlier assaults on a feminine officer, had been added.

During the court docket circumstances, Lauren – who has waived her proper to anonymity – defined she met Provan on a blind date when she was an adolescent. Provan, then 31, took her to woods, the place he had intercourse along with her though she repeatedly informed him no.

Afterwards he acted as if nothing had occurred and took Ms Taylor to a McDonald’s for a milkshake earlier than forcing her to interact in a intercourse act in a youngsters’s playground. All the offences had been dedicated whereas Provan was a serving officer within the Met’s East Area Command Unit.

It has since emerged issues about Provan’s behaviour date again to the Nineties. But they went unchecked till Lauren bravely got here ahead to report what occurred.

Her report got here 11 years after the feminine police officer had complained she was stalked and harassed by Provan, which resulted in phrases of warning. In 2019 the officer reported to the police that he had additionally raped her six instances.

Prosecutors described Provan as a “Jekyll and Hyde” character who was obsessive about younger ladies, seen teenage pornography and had the small print of 751 ladies on his cellphone.

While one other feminine officer complained in 2005 that Provan despatched her “nuisance” messages, however nothing was executed and the difficulty was handled “informally”, the court docket was informed. He additionally allegedly contacted a 16-year-old woman after she gave her particulars as a witness in 2003.

Sentencing on Tuesday, Judge Noel Lucas KC criticised officers for wanting to guard “on of their own”. Addressing Provan, he mentioned: “I find it highly troubling that (the female 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 Ms Taylor would have been spared the ordeal she has had to go through.”

Speaking exterior Scotland Yard, Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe mentioned: “We heard in evidence that when one victim, a serving Met officer, reported allegations against Provan in 2005 these were not taken seriously.

“She therefore did not have the confidence to report she had been raped by him. We are sincerely sorry this was her experience and that she was let down by a system she trusted and was serving.”

Lauren mentioned: “No amount of justice will make me forget the date from hell. Even though I tried my best to block it out I will never forget how scared I was when the assault took place, and 13 years later reliving my worst nightmare.”

The second victim, who has not waived her lifelong right to anonymity, told the court Provan regarded himself as “untouchable” and bragged about being a “trained killer”.

She told the court she feared he would kill her and accused the Met of failing to protect her and deal with him sooner.

In an interview with the PA news agency Ms Taylor said “I don’t feel like I’ve done anything amazing. I just feel like I’ve done what I needed to do for me.”

Of Provan, she said: “I’m angry at what he’s done to me. I’m angry about who he was. He was a police officer, and we go to them to be protected, and I wasn’t protected.

“And I’m angry for the lack of remorse that he’s shown throughout this whole process.

“The reason why I did the last retrial was because I wanted to make sure that he didn’t go out and harm anyone else.”

Judge Lucas paid tribute to the ladies’s bravery and informed the officer that the remedy she obtained from the Met was “abysmal”, including: “I hope it never happens again. More than abysmal, it’s shocking.”

In his sentencing, Judge Lucas informed Provan: “The persistence and seriousness of your offending is clear when set out in these stark terms.

“What is particularly troubling about this case is that at the time of each of the offences you were a serving police officer – someone who members of the public had an entitlement to feel was a person of the very highest trustworthiness.

“By your actions you have brought disgrace on the police force.

“What struck me about Ms Taylor’s description of your behaviour towards her was the same cold blooded and chilling entitlement to sex, and sex in your preferred manner, followed immediately by conduct as if everything was perfectly normal. You exhibited this same behaviour with (the female officer).”

The choose additionally discovered Provan to be a harmful offender and mentioned he struggled to see why he would have the small print of 751 females on his cellphone apart from his “fascination bordering on obsession with young women”.