Victim speaks out as ex-Metropolitan police officer jailed for rapes

Ex-Pc Adam Provan’s predatory behaviour dated back to the 1990s and went unchecked until one of his victims came forward, Wood Green Crown Court heard.

Between 2003 and 2005, he also repeatedly raped a female police officer and terrorised her so she feared for her life, the court was told.

Prosecutors said Provan was obsessed with young women, had viewed teenage pornography and collected more than 700 female contacts on his mobile phone.

Another female officer complained in 2005 that Provan sent her “nuisance” messages but nothing was done and the issue was dealt with “informally”, the court was told.

He also allegedly contacted a 16-year-old girl after she gave her details as a witness in 2003.

Two other women made allegations but a rape case was not proceeded with and a sexual assault case ended in acquittal.

In 2016, Lauren Taylor came forward to say Provan raped her on a blind date when she was 16 in 2010.

Ms Taylor, now 29, had agreed to go to the cinema with Provan after he lied about his age, saying he was 22, and said he was a police officer.

Instead, Provan, then 31, took her to woods, where he had sex with her even though she repeatedly told him no.

Speaking of her ordeal in an interview with the PA news agency after waiving her right to anonymity, she said: “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.”

Afterwards, he acted as if nothing had happened and took Ms Taylor to a McDonald’s for a milkshake before forcing her to engage in a sex act in a children’s playground.

Ms Taylor said: “I remember in the far distance there was a crowd of people. I was just praying that maybe someone would see me, someone would see what was going on.”

Provan even discussed what films he might claim they went to see before taking her home.

All the offences were committed while Provan was a serving officer in the Met’s East Area Command Unit.

His first trial for double rape ended in a hung jury but he was convicted in 2018 and jailed for nine years. The next year, he was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police.

He served three years and three months in prison – only to be released on bail after the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial.

At the fresh trial, Ms Taylor gave evidence for a third time and six more charges of rape, relating to Provan’s earlier attacks on the female officer, were added.

In June, Provan, now 44 and from Newmarket in Suffolk, was found guilty of a total of eight rapes against the two women.

In a victim impact statement, Ms Taylor said: “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.”

She told of being “triggered” by discussion around the murder of Sarah Everard by a Met police officer, saying she already knew about “bad cops”.

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 after she complained about stalking and harassment behaviour in 2005.

The court was told Provan was given words of warning but the victim did not wish to make a statement at the time and came forward to report the rapes in 2019.

Judge Noel Lucas KC told her the treatment she received from the Met was “abysmal”, adding: “I hope it never happens again. More than abysmal, it’s shocking.”

Provan was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on Tuesday to 16 years in prison with a further eight years on extended licence.

Judge Lucas told the defendant: “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).”

Referring to the officer’s earlier complaint about Provan, the judge added: “I find it highly troubling that (her) 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.”

The judge also found Provan to be a dangerous offender and said he struggled to see why he would have the details of 751 females on his phone other than his “fascination bordering on obsession with young women”.

After the hearing, the Metropolitan Police said it was working to identify if there are further victims and would review Provan’s full history while at the force and before he joined to see whether action could have been taken sooner.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, said: “I am sure the public will be as shocked and revolted at Provan’s offences as we are here in the Met. He abused his position as a police officer to win the trust of both these women. His actions are utterly deplorable.

“Both women have been enormously strong and courageous in giving evidence to the court – incredibly three times for one of the women – and ensuring Provan is now behind bars. I am so sorry for the pain and suffering he has caused them.”

She added: “We are examining Provan’s criminal and conduct history in the Met so we can fully understand whether we could have acted sooner to bring him before the courts, or have stopped him joining the police.

“This work is ongoing but we can already see there were key moments where we let women down and did not do all we could to support them. We have told the Independent Office for Police Conduct we are carrying out a review and advised them that we will make appropriate referrals.

“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.”

In her interview, Ms Taylor told PA: “I don’t feel like I’ve done anything amazing. I just feel like I’ve done what I needed to do for me.”

On 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.

“I’ve been to court three times. He’s still fully denied what he’s done and even after being in prison for a certain amount of years, he’s not had time to reflect and he’s not changed, he’s still who he is.

“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.”

On her advice to others, she said: “Never be ashamed of what happened to you, because what happened to you is not your fault.

“When you’re ready, talk to someone. It doesn’t have to be a police officer, it can be a family member, it can be a friend, it can be a helpline.”

Ms Taylor added: “You can’t do anything until you’re ready to face it. You might never be ready to face it. That’s OK too.

“For me, I couldn’t rest until I’d come forward and spoken about it.”