A former Met Police officer has been sentenced to 24 years behind bars after he was found guilty of 13 counts of sexual assault and rape against three teenage girls.
Over the course of four years, Anthony Paul Smith began a “manipulative” campaign of abuse in which he raped and sexually assaulted the three girls—aged between 13 and 17 years old. The offences, which took place between 1993 and 1997, occurred while Smith was a serving officer with the Met Police where he “manipulated” and “controlled” one of his victims making her feel “worthless and terrified”.
During a three-week trial that concluded on June 30, all three victims told the court how Smith raped and sexually abused them numerous times over several years.
One of the victims said: “To the outside world, you were a pillar of the community, a shining example of a police officer—yet here you were, abusing your position of trust, making me feel powerless, guilty and ashamed of what I was being made to do.”
Since his abuse, the woman said that “feelings of guilt, shame and anxiety are my ‘normal’ and I struggle every day to fight this. I have carried the shame of being an abuse victim around with me throughout my life and this has negatively impacted my intimate relationships. Even though I know that the abuse was not my fault, the shame never fully leaves a childhood sexual abuse survivor.”
A previous swimming teacher from Llandudno, Wales, the 56-year-old left his role within the force after he was convicted of gross indecency with a child under 16. Appearing at Guildford Crown Court last month, the investigation into Smith’s past was launched when one of his victims came forward reported that she had been abused as a teenager.
Detective Sergeant Matt Cable, of Surrey Police’s sexual offences investigation team, said: “As a police officer at the time of his offending, Smith was in a position of power which meant that his victims did not feel they were able to speak out about what he had done to them until many years later. The sentence he has received today reflects the extent of his predatory behaviour in the way he targeted young girls and used them for his own gratification.”
He added: “To see him behind bars will hopefully enable these three women to move on with their lives in the knowledge that he has finally been brought to justice for his heinous and indefensible crimes.”
