He has been branded ‘disgraceful’ by a judge
A police officer from Derbyshire is “almost certainly” set to be jailed after being found guilty of having sexual activity with vulnerable crime victims. Steven Walters, of West Midlands Police, engaged in sexual acts with two different women during separate callouts.
Branded “disgraceful” by a judge, both occasions were related to domestic abuse callouts in 2013. Walters, aged 55, of Winster Green, Newhall, in Swadlincote, has been on trial at Birmingham Crown Court alongside Anthony Ritchie, aged 46, of East Meadway, Tile Cross, who also had relations with one of the women.
Ritchie was also accused of starting a sexual relationship with a woman he met when he was called out to arrest her son. On Monday, July 17, both were convicted of two counts each of misconduct in a public office, reports Staffordshire Live.
Judge Roderick Henderson, who presided over the case, said: “It’s not just the Met (Metropolitan Police) where these things happen is it? This was disgraceful behaviour.
“You shame yourselves and all of the decent and respectable police officers who know how to treat victims of crime. This was very, very serious. You will almost certainly be serving prison sentences for this, but I will order pre-sentence reports.”
Sentencing was adjourned until Thursday, September 21. Walters has already served a jail sentence for two sexual assaults on two different women in 2015, while he was a serving officer, but his current offences did not come to light until afterwards.
In 2018, police were called out to an intoxicated woman, who did not want to let them into her home, claiming she was “afraid and scared” of officers due to “bad experiences”. She went on to report that, in October 2013, Walters attended her home due to a domestic incident and “pressured” her into engaging in a sexual act with him, the court heard.
She claimed he “got a kick” out of the fact he was speaking to colleagues over the radio “completely normally” at the time. The same victim then disclosed she had a consensual relationship with Ritchie in 2014 after he had attended her home for a domestic incident, then returned alone the following day holding a jar of coffee.
The second complainant in the case reported that during a domestic incident at her home in July 2013, she was led to a bathroom by Walters, where she gave him oral sex. She described the officer as “a bit like a predator”.
A third vulnerable woman reported that Ritchie was called out to her home in June 2014 to arrest her son and thereafter commenced a sexual relationship with her.
He later asked her to lie to a superior officer that they met by chance in the pub. The victim noticed that whilst Ritchie was suspended from the force he was still describing himself as a police officer on his Tinder dating profile which “left her concerned he was a predator preying on vulnerable women”.
Ritchie had previously been warned by management after sending an inappropriate text to a female armed robbery victim which said: “At least you got to meet a fit police officer. You gonna let me take you out Friday then?”
(Source: Derby Telegraph)
