Stevie* was 14 when they wrote down what their sports coach, Mike*, had been doing.
Stevie wasn’t sure if it was sexual abuse but their foster mum, Jenny*, read it and had no doubt. After alerting Stevie’s school, Jenny contacted the police. I was on shift.
My dad was the one who suggested I join the police. He’d been a detective and while I was interested in his work, I trained as a teacher. I loved it but when Covid hit, I realised I felt stuck.
That’s when Dad told me about Police Now, a social enterprise that recruits and trains graduates to become detectives and police officers. From my research it was obvious that they supported a diverse range of people to join the police, something that, as a woman, I found reassuring.
And after going through their intense training academy – including role playing real-life scenarios with actors – I knew I could do the job.
I had only been an officer for eight months when I was allocated Stevie’s case, and was initially apprehensive about the scale of the investigation; when I met them, however, I realised I was talking to an exceptionally brave young person.
Sexual abuse is a huge disclosure to make at any age and I was a stranger asking a child to talk, in detail, about something some adults don’t want to discuss.
It’s horrendous to hear a child say words they shouldn’t even know; their innocence has been taken away. Establishing trust and making victims feel at ease is crucial.
Mike was arrested within days of Stevie’s allegation. He had known them for years and had the opportunity to commit the alleged offences, yet he denied everything, instead giving a long account of his innocence.
With sexual offences, we don’t always have forensic evidence or CCTV. Sometimes all you have is the victim’s account, compared with what the suspect says in an interview.
This Is Not Right
On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a year-long campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.
With the help of our partners at Women’s Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.
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I’ll always believe victims but the police cannot take a side; I have to explore everything I’m told. I’m not giving the victim a good service if the case isn’t watertight and Mike’s denial meant the investigation was going to be lengthy.
Understandably, victims often struggle when this happens.
As investigating officers, we update our victims once every 28 days – I want to give people answers sooner but sometimes it’s just not possible. Investigations can take months or years while we comb through evidence, alongside other cases.
My first breakthrough came from Mike’s phone. The initial digital download of its contents revealed little, which was bizarre – nothing gave his device any personality.
However, a manual search uncovered a deleted text message in which Mike referred to himself as a paedophile in a graphic manner.
Having identified who that message went to, I visited her at her home. She initially denied knowing Mike, though later disclosed he had offended against her, too, and eventually agreed to a video interview.
It’s poignant when someone makes that initial, terrible statement; it humbles me that people invite me into their homes and are willing to talk about something awful, especially if they’ve tried to close the book on that chapter of their lives – these horrendous cases undoubtedly affect people forever.
I had a strong case with Stevie’s statement and the second victim’s disclosure but the incidents were 10 years apart and my instinct was that Mike’s offending didn’t stop with two people.
Stevie’s* story
It started when I was 11. To begin with Mike seemed like a good person so I started having one-to-one lessons with him.
For a few months it was all right but then he started being weird and inappropriate. He said I shouldn’t tell Jenny; at first I didn’t think anything of it but it kept happening. As I got older, I realised that it was wrong.
Mike went away for six weeks and that’s when I wrote the letter. I started wondering why he didn’t want me to tell someone, so I wanted to see what Jenny thought. I didn’t realise how bad it was until it got to the police; that’s when I knew it was serious.
I didn’t want to talk to the police at first. I felt like it’d be too much for them. When I met Cari, she didn’t rush me or ask everything at once, she just did it slowly. I felt like she was on my side.
Other people might be in the same place I was before I said anything, but if they have a feeling that something is wrong, even if it’s a small feeling, they should still tell someone, just in case. It could be something big.
A search of our police database helped me work it out: Years before, someone had contacted the police with a child protection concern, mentioning Mike’s name. There hadn’t been enough information to take action then but the report was held on our systems.
It is why I’m passionate about people reporting. We will always do our best but investigations can be limited, for various reasons. However, when a name comes up later down the line, old records help us build that bigger picture. For victims and survivors, there’s power in that.
I visited the third victim, who also welcomed me and shared her memories of that initial report. She said to me: ‘I know you can’t tell me if there’s somebody else but I don’t think you’d come knocking on my door if you hadn’t found someone.’
Without knowing about Stevie, she wanted to support a stranger. I see this a lot, survivors supporting each other. Ultimately, I was able to include her as a victim and it led to a charge and a conviction against Mike.
Having initially denied everything, he pleaded guilty to all the charges just before the case went to court. I’ll never know why. He was sentenced to 18 years and seven months and given a sexual harm prevention order and restraining orders against all the victims in the case.
Jenny’s story* (Stevie’s foster mum)
Even though Stevie was young, the tone of their letter meant it was clear what had been going on and that they’d been groomed. It was such a shock to read it. I immediately went into their school and I knew it would be a police matter.
I was really impressed by Cari, her professionalism, and the fact that she took on board Stevie’s neurodiversity. She quickly understood that Stevie had additional needs so would need an independent advocate in the interview with them. That delayed things but it also gave Stevie and Cari more time to get to know each other.
It was all taken, very, very seriously, but gently as well. Stevie was consistently told that they’d done the right thing, that there was nothing they could say that would shock anybody and that they could use their own language.
It took a good two years for all the evidence to come together and Cari worked so hard and kept us up to date. As monumental as this was for Stevie, it’s also been a huge case for Cari – we felt like we were all in it together.
To find out more about Police Now or apply to join, visit Graduate Police Jobs | Join the Police | Police Now.
As police, we want to hold people accountable for their crimes. Charging rates for sexual offences are going up but we cannot get convictions all the time – we can’t always get charges. We try to be transparent.
Even when the evidence is strong and I’m doing everything I can, I would never guarantee a conviction because it’s out of my control. I work with incredible officers but we know that the police still have more to learn about supporting victims.
We need to listen to people’s experiences and continually review our processes to look at the impact we are having. Regardless of outcome, people need to feel believed, and that we’ll do everything to secure justice.
I hope that I am approachable, professionally and personally, and make survivors feel seen and heard.
I’m sure there will be times when I’ve got that wrong; in Stevie’s case, I was just glad to play a part.
The outcome was testament to Stevie’s bravery. They prevented other young people from having the same experience – and now they are thriving.
*Names have been changed
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