Officers guilty of forming inappropriate sexual relationships with women while on duty

PC Anthony Ritchie and former PC Steven Darren Walters, both of West Midlands Police, had sexual relationships with a total of three vulnerable women, some of whom they met while responding to domestic abuse incidents.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the “predatory behaviour” of the two officers had abused their position of trust.

During the trial at Birmingham Crown Court, the jury heard how both men engaged in sexual activity with the same victim; Walters at the woman’s home address on October 1, 2013, while PC Ritchie began an inappropriate relationship with the same woman following his initial visit to her home on June 4, 2014.

Following a previous police visit, PC Ritchie, 46, also contacted another vulnerable woman by telephone before visiting her home address and having sex with her while on duty. He began an inappropriate relationship with the woman and then asked her to lie to a superior officer about how the relationship had started.

Walters, 55, who was dismissed by West Midlands Police for gross misconduct in 2016, also engaged in sexual activity with another woman while on duty on July 14, 2013.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) carried out four separate investigations, which led to PC Ritchie and Walters each being charged with two counts of misconduct in public office, involving allegations of abuse of authority for sexual gain.

At the end of the 12-day trial on Monday (July 17), a jury found them guilty of all charges and the judge adjourned the case for sentencing on September 21. Both men were warned that they should expect custodial sentences.

Evidence gathered by the IOPC indicated that PC Ritchie began an inappropriate sexual relationship with the woman in 2014 after he responded to a reported domestic violence incident. Inquiries indicated he sent her messages from his personal phone and that they had sex after he arrested her partner, who was then remanded in custody.

During their relationship she disclosed to him that the previous year (2013) she had been pressured into oral sex by then PC Walters, who had gone to her home single-crewed to deal with alleged domestic abuse. The IOPC said it established that the woman expected PC Ritchie to act on her allegations, which did not happen.

The IOPC investigations into both officers began after the woman made disclosures to other police officers who attended her home in April 2018 for an unrelated incident.

In May 2021 another woman came forward to say that she had been in a sexual relationship with PC Ritchie in 2014 after he asked for a date, having gone to her home in an attempt to arrest her son.

She alleged they had sex while he was on duty and that PC Ritchie persuaded her to lie to a superior officer about how they had met, after a complaint was made by her son to the police about the nature of the officer’s relationship with his mother.

The IOPC made a further referral to the CPS after investigating complaints made in November 2021 by a third woman who alleged that an officer, later identified as Walters, had initiated oral sex while attending a domestic abuse incident at her partner’s home in 2013.

IOPC Regional Director Derrick Campbell said: “Abuse of power for sexual gain is a breach of the public’s trust, which seriously undermines confidence in the police service and discredits the profession.

“The actions of PC Ritchie and ex-PC Walters were quite rightly described as predatory during the trial and an aggravating feature is that they consistently targeted women who were in vulnerable situations and looking to the police for help.

“Both officers have behaved disgracefully and in PC Ritchie’s case our investigations established that while he was having a relationship with two women at the same time after meeting them through work, he was also going through a disciplinary procedure for inappropriate text messages sent to another woman he met while on duty.”

The trial was told that after Walters was jailed for sexually assaulting two different women in 2015 while on duty, he was dismissed by West Midlands Police in 2016. That followed an investigation by the then Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Mr Campbell said it was of “particular concern” that the disclosures made to PC Ritchie, which were not followed up, predated those offences.

The first of the IOPC’s current investigations into the officers began in April 2018 and the final one was completed in January last year (2022).

The IOPC said: “During our inquiries we carried out achieving best evidence interviews with the complainants; PC Ritchie and ex-PC Walters were interviewed under criminal caution; and we carried out extensive analysis of their phones and communications data.”

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said: “This was predatory behaviour from two police officers who abused their position of trust while on duty serving the public.

“Both Walters and Ritchie took advantage of vulnerable women after visiting them for police purposes.

“I want to commend the bravery of the women in this case for coming forward and providing the evidence to enable us to secure these convictions.”