A shamed police inspector jailed for “warped” child sex offences and a crime scene investigator exposed as a paedophile have been allowed to keep their comfortable public sector pensions.
Despite being sacked in disgrace, both former South Wales Police inspector Geraint Lloyd Evans and ex-North Wales Police staff member Ian Wyn Williams are entitled to claim the cash.
The chief executive of a leading victim support charity last night blasted the move as “an outrage” and said the vast majority of police officers would be “appalled” by the revelations.
The men are among four police staff in Wales convicted of child sex abuse since 2007.
They are able to claim the money because their crimes are not deemed to have been “gravely injurious to the interests of the state or to be liable to lead to a serious loss of confidence in the public service”.
It was unclear whether the other two staff were allowed to keep their pensions after their convictions as Gwent Police and Dyfed-Powys Police refused to reveal the details in response to a Freedom of Information request.
Decorated officer Evans - who claimed in court to have lost £100,000 as a result of being sacked by South Wales Police - was jailed for 30 months after admitting joining “sick and disgusting” internet chatroom discussions about child abuse.
The 50-year-old, who had been based at Bridgend police station, was locked up in December 2011 after admitting his part in the online paedophile ring.
After pleading guilty to conspiring to incite engagement in unlawful sexual activity with a child aged under 13 and also to possessing 179 images of extreme pornography - including bestiality - Evans was told by Judge Paul Thomas he was “a man the public ought to have looked up to” but had “failed in the most important aspect of your job - to protect the vulnerable”.
The judge added: “For several years you lived a lie, clothed in the respectability of a police officer and purporting to have moral superiority over others.”
Judge Thomas described Evans and his three accused as “sick-minded individuals” who had “[fuelled and encouraged] each other’s depravity”.
After Evans’ conviction the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s (IPCC) commissioner for Wales, Tom Davies, said: “Evans was in a position of great responsibility and trust as a police inspector, which he abused.
“He indulged in criminal behaviour against children and also broke police standards of professional conduct.
“The vast majority of police officers across Wales continue to have the highest standards of integrity amd will doubtless share my revulsion at Evans’ actions.”
Evans, who had worked for many years in the force’s central division and lived in Barry. in the Vale of Glamorgan, was dismissed without notice on September 1, 2011.
In response to a Freedom of Information from Wales on Sunday about whether Evans had been allowed to keep his pension, South Wales Police said: “The subject did not qualify for pension forfeiture as the required legislation was not satisfied in that his offending was not proven to have been connected to his employment.”
Peter Saunders, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, told Wales on Sunday: “I’ve been speaking to a lot of police lately, coincidentally, and I’m absolutely certain they would share my view that this is an outrage.
“Presumably it’s a legal thing that they cannot legally have that money withheld or cancelled but it seems incredulous that they can be convicted of such serious crimes and don’t have to suffer any kind of consequence other than the conviction.”
He added: “The police conditions tend to be much more favourable than other public servants’ conditions and I know that the police I’ve been working with would probably be appalled at the thought that colleagues that have let the service down so badly are still entitled to reap the rewards, which they are paying for and we are all paying for.
“The thought of paying into a pension fund where you know that some of that fund is going to a convicted child abuser - I find that disgusting.”
Former senior crime scene investigator Williams, from Anglesey, was aged 45 when he was handed a suspended 52-week jail term in 2011 after admitting making and possessing indecent images of children.
Williams also admitted causing a child to engage in sexual activity and was given a five-year sex offenders prevention order and placed on the sex offenders register, while his jail term was suspended for two years.
IPCC commissioner Mr Davies said after the hearing: “This was a despicable crime committed against young, vulnerable girls by a mature man who had a responsible position working for a police force.”
An IPCC investigation found Williams had not abused his position to further his criminal activities.
He had earlier been sacked by North Wales Police in March 2011 while already suspended.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the force said: “There are no restrictions in place on the pension as part of the dismissal.”
Gwent Police detective constable Michael Thomas, from Port Talbot, was convicted in 2010 of 22 separate specimen offences of making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children following an FBI investigation.
Thomas, then aged 40, was sacked following a misconduct hearing in August 2010 after being jailed for 12 months following his convictions for sharing hundreds of child sex abuse images.
The force refused to reveal whether any restrictions had been placed on Thomas’ pension entitlement.
Dyfed-Powys Police constable Mark Bretherick resigned from the force in September 2007 before he appeared at court to admit possessing an indecent image of a child.
The then-33-year-old, who had been based in Newtown and lived in Forden, Welshpool, was sentenced to a three-year supervision order and placed on the sex offenders register for five years.
The force would not confirm whether any restrictions had been placed on Bretherick’s pension entitlement and said it would breach data protection principles to provide the information.
The Police Pension Scheme 1987 states that members may have part of their pension forfeited either permanently or temporarily by the police authority if they are convicted of “an offence of treason, one or more offences under the Official Secrets Acts for which [they] have been sentenced on the same occasion to at least 10 years’ imprisonment or an offence committed in connection with [their] police service which is certified by the Secretary of State either to have been gravely injurious to the interests of the state or to be liable to lead to a serious loss of confidence in the public service (e.g. conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”.
The latest Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations, which would cover a position such as Williams’ role, states that any pension forfeiture would require an application to the Secretary of State following “an offence committed in connection with an employment in which the person convicted is a member and because of which the member left the employment”.
A Home Office spokeswoman said the forfeiture of a pension for a police officer, such as Evans, was a three-stage process which would have to be referred to the Home Secretary by the Police and Crime Commissioner of the relevant force.
A Home Office document on police pension reform published last March said the government wanted to “make sure that police officers continue to have access to a pension that is among the very best available”.
read more here: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/shamed-police-inspector-exposed-paedophile-6593219
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