In 2008, Sally (then 22 years old) was assaulted by her then partner. Sally called the emergency services and four Police Officers of Devon and Cornwall Police including PCSO Bunyan and 2 paramedics attended.
By the time the Officers had attended, Sally’s partner had fled. Sally had obvious injuries and required treatment by the paramedics. The Officers decided that Sally’s partner should be traced and arrested. Although it was suggested that PCSO Bunyan be one of the Officers to assist with the arrest, he instead insisted that he stay with Sally, in order to take her statement. What he in fact intended to do, was to take advantage of Sally’s vulnerability and exploit his apparent role as a ‘white knight’ saviour in order to groom her for sexual exploitation.
The other three Officers having left, PCSO Bunyan then spoke to Sally at length and took a detailed witness statement. During this process, PCSO Bunyan appeared to be very caring and attentive as well as complimentary to Sally. PCSO Bunyan eventually left, but not before giving Sally his mobile phone number. Thereafter, PCSO Bunyan began to text Sally repeatedly and call around to see her on the pretext of carrying out “welfare checks”. A relationship developed.
Sally was naïve, young and vulnerable. PCSO Bunyan was approximately 35 years old. For a time, Sally became besotted with him. PCSO Bunyan would call round to see Sally three or four times a week and when he did so, Sally and PCSO Bunyan would have sex.
On every occasion PCSO Bunyan attended, he was in full uniform and to the best of Sally’s knowledge, on duty. On occasion, PCSO Bunyan’s Police radio would go off and he would either turn it down and ignore it, or respond and say that he was busy.
The timing of PCSO Bunyan’s visits was always controlled by PCSO Bunyan. Further, Sally increasingly found sexual intercourse abusive, in that PCSO Bunyan would manoeuvre her into positions where she could not move or where her hands were held behind her back.
During the course of the relationship, PCSO Bunyan also made it clear to Sally that he had accessed her data on the Police National Database.
All of this behaviour can easily be recognised from a distance to have been the disturbing hallmarks of an abuser, but Sally at the time was emotionally vulnerable and confused; ‘easy prey’ for a domineering man like PCSO Bunyan, who so heinously and shamelessly was exploiting his Police authority.
Then, on or about 5 November 2009, PCSO Bunyan invited Sally to a Neighbourhood Policing Unit, where Sally states that PCSO Bunyan raped her. In the weeks and months subsequent to this incident, Sally tried to call and message PCSO Bunyan but he failed to respond. With a view to eliciting a response, Sally messaged to say that the relationship was over.
In mid 2010, PCSO Bunyan then attended Sally’s home address out of the blue.
He advised that there was a dangerous man in the neighbourhood and that Sally should keep an eye on her young children. PCSO Bunyan went on to say that he had lost his phone and that his Facebook page had been hacked.
Further, that if anyone came round ‘asking questions’, Sally was to deny that she had had a relationship with him and to assert that he had attended at her home on a few occasions only for a ‘welfare check’.
Several weeks later, Police Officers from the Anti-Corruption Unit did indeed come to visit Sally. She was advised that PCSO Bunyan was under investigation for Misconduct in Public Office. It appears that during his time with the Force, since 2003, Bunyan had exploited a number of vulnerable women for sex, and tragically Sally was far from being his only victim.
Sally gave a video interview and subsequently, and very bravely, gave evidence at PCSO Bunyan’s criminal trial for Misconduct in Public Office, at the conclusion of which he was found guilty.
Sally was already a vulnerable individual when she first met PCSO Bunyan. PCSO Bunyan blatantly exploited her for his own sexual pleasure. His actions left Sally psychologically traumatised to such an extent that it was only in 2019 that Sally felt mentally strong enough to take action.
Sally brought a claim for damages for the psychological trauma suffered which had left her with high levels of anxiety and depression, including feelings of low self-esteem and unworthiness. Sally also suffered from panic attacks and feared that PCSO Bunyan might seek revenge against her. She also lost all trust with people in authority and particularly the Police themselves.
Then, in 2019 Sally was contacted by a TV production company who invited her to participate in a documentary about her experiences. Several other women who were victims of PCSO Bunyan were also participants in the documentary, and to her shock, Sally discovered during this process that PCSO Bunyan’s Police colleagues had been aware of his proclivities, but had not reported him. This made her angry and fuelled her with desire to seek proper redress for what had been done to her, by PCSO Bunyan as an individual and the Police as an institution.
Furthermore, from a legal point of view, I was able to demonstrate that no ‘prejudice’ was caused to the Police by the late presentation of Sally’s claim, as they already had full details of PCSO Bunyan’s misconduct, gathered during their internal investigation and the subsequent prosecution; this was not a claim which came ‘out of the blue’ or in regards to which the Police lacked crucial evidence/documents because of the passage of time.
Armed with these arguments, I was able to convince the Police to pay damages for their former Officer’s abuse of Sally, notwithstanding the claim being brought some seven years after the expiry of the limitation period.
Following the institution of Court proceedings, Devon and Cornwall Police agreed to pay Sally £45,000 in compensation together with a letter of apology.
Name of victim changed.
Also read: Sexual predators among the police force
