Police Power Attracts Predators

A deeply disturbing case in the news last week was that of ex- Greater Manchester Police Officer Dean Dempster, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl in December 2023 whilst he was on duty. Dempster was subsequently discovered to have downloaded hundreds of indecent images of children, and his sentence of only 9 years imprisonment seems frankly insufficient.  

I was particularly struck by the comment of GMP’s Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods, who stated of Dempster “He is not a police officer; he is a child sex offender, a criminal and he has no right to be near police uniform or serve the public.”  This is concerning in its own way, because the fact of the matter is that Dempster was a Police Officer, and to deny that fact is to close one’s eyes to the obvious but chilling reality that predators are specifically attracted to ‘police uniform’ because of the power over others which it grants them, and specifically the opportunity to exploit the vulnerable: domestic violence victims, the mentally unwell and, of course, children and young people.

It is not enough for the Police to say that predators are anathema to the Police, to imply that they are the opposite of ‘true officers’, when so many abusers have chosen the profession because its access to power, violence, the privileged protection it offers and the vices of toxic masculinity common in its culture are attractive to and to some degree enabling of them.

It should not come as a surprise to the Police that they have predators within their ranks, as if they were a choir of angels who have suddenly unmasked a devil in their midst; they should be alive to the danger and constantly on the lookout for such men trying to infiltrate their ranks, their first duty in protecting the public being to protect them from Police Officers who abuse.

Otherwise tragic cases like this, and that of my client who was raped at the age of 13 by Cheshire Police Officer Ian Naude will continue to haunt us all.