FORMER West Midlands Police officer Allan Richards has been jailed for 22 years after being convicted of dozens of sex offences against children over a 38 year period, the majority of which were committed while he was a serving PC.
He will serve at least 12 years behind bars before being considered for parole and even then will remain on licence for the remainder of his sentence plus an additional five years.
During the course of two trials at Birmingham Crown Court Richards (pictured over the years and now) was exposed as a dangerous and predatory paedophile who exploited his position as a policeman to rape young boys.
The 54-year-old, from the Tile Cross area, also spent most of his life as a scout leader and used this respected position in the community to commit many of his crimes.
Richards – who retired as a police officer in 2011 – was found guilty of 40 charges relating to assaults and voyeurism between 1976 and 2014 against 17 boys who were between the ages of eight and 19.
Richards’ warrant card when he joined the Police.
Five of those convictions were for misconduct in public office.
The offences ranged from touching boys inappropriately in a local swimming pool and on scouting trips to serious sexual assaults he carried out after enticing children to his home in Tile Cross.
His catalogue of abuse began in the late 1970s, when Richards indecently assaulted scouts inside tents while camping, removing their clothes and touching them.
Richards started exploiting his status as a police officer in the 1980s as his offending escalated.
He told some of the youngsters that the reason he was touching them was to eliminate them from a criminal investigation and warned his victims not to tell anyone.
One of the offences was committed against a teenager inside Steelhouse Lane police station in Birmingham city centre after Richards purported to be carrying out a police inquiry.
His most serious crimes happened either at his home or in the local park, where he groomed many of the children while walking his Boxer dog – a detail which helped corroborate his victims’ accounts
In the late 1990s Richards raped a boy who was aged around 15 in an unknown location after initially luring him to a police station under the pretext of an official investigation.
He raped another 15-year-old in the early 2000s after grooming two friends in a park while they were dressed in uniform and on their way to or from school.
In May 2014 police arrested Allan Richards after a man came forward and reported a sexual assault committed against him in 2006 when he was aged 15-years-old.
A key part of the prosecution evidence against Richards was a series of diaries dated between 1976 and 2015 that were found during a search of his Thaxted Road home.
Inside were hundreds of graphic entries detailing sexual contact with other men and boys, as well as information about children he had watched in a state of undress.
Assistant Chief Constable Alex Murray has apologised on behalf of West Midlands Police.
He said: “Allan Richards is a deviant and dangerous man who deliberately abused his position of trust and responsibility for his own sexual gratification.
“As a police officer who has spent my career protecting people it sickens me that at the time he carried out these crimes he was representing my organisation.
“I know no apology can take away the abuse, but I am genuinely sorry, on behalf of West Midlands Police, that people have been let down.”
West Midlands Police made a referral to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in 2015 as soon as the extent of the inquiry and likely number of victims became apparent.
The IPCC confirmed that an independent investigation would take place at the conclusion of criminal proceedings and the force will fully co-operate with the inquiry.
