Detective jailed for dropping sexual assault and rape investigations
5:29pm Monday 29th October 2012 in News By David Lindsell, Assistant Editor
A Kingston officer who lied to sex and rape victims, letting suspects off the hook, has been sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Detective Ryan Coleman-Farrow, 30, was based at Kingston police station as part of the sexual offences detection unit Sapphire between January 2007 and September 2010.
His lies were revealed after a woman killed herself in a flat in Putney but left a note saying a Kingston police harassment investigation, led by Coleman-Farrow, had let her down.
Coleman-Farrow was jailed today at Southwark Crown Court, which heard the 13 victims he let down included a 96-year-old woman and a care home resident with brain damage who said she was raped by a staff member.
Two 15-year-old girls, a 14-year-old boy, and a patient at a unit for sexual abuse victims were also lied to by him, the court heard.
Coleman-Farrow had pleaded guilty to 13 counts of misconduct in public office at a hearing in September.
He told senior officers that rape victims had dropped their allegations while telling them that their cases were being shelved.
He faked 32 crime reports, all of which have been reinvestigated since, falsified a witness statement, pretended he had interviewed rape suspects three times and made up suspect statements three times.
The detective also told his superiors he had passed files to the Crown Prosecution Service seven times when he had not.
Before 2009, the unit was devoted solely to crimes in the borough of Kingston. He was sacked in April 2011.
He also told investigators trying to unravel his lies that he had a serious medical condition.
His lies unravelled when Riley Lison-Taylor and Jamie Perlman made a pact to kill themselves in a Putney flat using toxic gases in September 2010.
Ms Perlman left a note claiming she had been let down over a harassment allegation.
Although the investigation found no misconduct, the rogue officer's actions were uncovered when they looked at cases in which he was the lead investigator.
According to the IPCC report, when he was interviewed about one of the cases he dropped, he said: "I was aware in myself that I wasn’t doing what I should be doing but at the time I wasn’t erm, I wasn’t thinking about the consequences is I guess the best way of saying it.
"Obviously I understand what those consequences are and looking back it, you know it horrifies me, but at the time it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind."
Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) deputy chairwoman Deborah Glass said Det Con Coleman-Farrow had shown a catalogue of wilful failings towards vulnerable people whose faith he had abused.
She said: "Our investigation did not reveal systemic or serious supervisory failings.
"Coleman-Farrow admitted during his criminal interviews with the IPCC that in some cases he actively lied and misled his supervisors to cover up his shortcomings and that they would have had no reason to question the validity of the evidence he produced.
"He also told his supervisors and us that he was being treated for a serious medical condition although no medical evidence was provided to them or us.
“We may never understand the motives for Coleman-Farrow’s actions. He was a rogue officer who deceived his colleagues and concocted evidence to cover his tracks.”
