Adam Provan: The troubling details of rapist police officer - and the 16-year-old victim let down

Andy Wells
Former Met police officer Adam Provan has been jailed for a series of rapes. (PA)
Former Met police officer Adam Provan has been jailed for a series of rapes. (PA)

What's happening? A judge has said the former Metropolitan Police officer who abused his position to prey on women and girls could have been stopped if complaints had been taken more seriously.

The Met was criticised by judge Noel Lucas KC on Tuesday as he jailed ex-PC Adam Provan, 44, for 16 years for a series of rapes spanning eight years.

The judge said 16-year-old victim Lauren Taylor would have been spared had a female police officer’s initial complaints been taken seriously.

Lucas told Provan that it was “highly troubling” that the female officer’s colleagues “were more concerned about looking out for ‘one of their own’ than in taking her seriously”.

An exterior view of Wood Green Crown Court in north London. (Photo by Dinendra Haria / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
Adam Provan was sentenced to 16 years at Wood Green Crown Court. (PA) (SOPA Images, Sipa US)

He added: “Had they done so, it may be that Ms Taylor would have been spared the ordeal she has had to go through.”

Lucas told the officer that the treatment she received from the Met was “abysmal”.

Assistant commissioner Louisa Rolfe said she was “ashamed and saddened”, adding that “it’s quite clear from what we’ve seen already that we have let the victims down and that must never happen again”.

Yahoo looks at some of the most troubling revelations from the case.

Met was warned convicted rapist was unsuitable to be an officer

Provan’s suitability as a police officer was questioned just months after he begun his training in February 2003.

According to a timeline released by the Met Police, two members of the public raised concerns with the force after they alleged that he had shown overly violent and sexualised behaviour when he was growing up.

Watch: Senior Met officer urges officers to be ‘professional curious’ about colleagues

Provan was referred to occupational health professionals.

It came a week after he was interviewed by police over an allegation of sexual touching against him by a 15-year-old girl.

No further action was taken following liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Met probing if serial rapist officer attacked other women

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe speaks to the media at New Scotland Yard, central London, after former Metropolitan Police Officer Adam Provan was sentenced to 16 years with a further eight on extended licence at Wood Green Crown Court, north London, for eight counts of rape. Picture date: Tuesday August 22, 2023.
Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Louisa Rolfe said the force was investigating to see if Adam Provan attacked other women. (Alamy) (Lucy North, PA Images)

Scotland Yard has announced a review of Provan’s full service - including before he joined the Met - to identify potential victims, who are being encouraged to come forward.

The Met’s assistant commissioner, Louisa Rolfe, said the force was “looking” at contacting the 751 female contacts found on Provan’s mobile phone.

She said: “I understand a small number of those had contact details with them, some of them were just names, some of them contained derogatory information about women.”

Asked if the Met will contact any of the women, she added: “If we have information that will enable us to do that, but also if anybody is concerned, then of course we are looking at what that means.

“We’ll be looking at those details and seeing what we can do.”

Woman who was raped by Met Police officer speaks out: ‘I had to tell the truth’

Lauren Taylor, who has waived her right to anonymity, at New Scotland Yard, central London, ahead of the sentencing of former Pc Adam Provan, who was found guilty of six counts of rape of a woman between 2003 and 2005, and two counts of rape of a teenage girl in 2010. Provan was sentenced to 16 years with a further eight on extended licence at Wood Green Crown Court, north London. The offences were all committed while he was a serving officer at East Area Command Unit. Picture date: Thursday August 17, 2023.
Lauren Taylor was raped by Adam Provan in 2010, when was 16. (Alamy) (Aaron Chown, PA Images)

In 2016, Lauren Taylor came forward to say Provan raped her on a blind date when she was 16 in 2010.

Ms Taylor, now 29, had agreed to go to the cinema with Provan after he lied about his age, saying he was 22, and said he was a police officer.

Waiving her anonymity, Taylor said she felt compelled to act after becoming a mother at the age of 22 and watching a television documentary about the paedophile presenter Jimmy Savile.

On her decision to report Provan, she said: “I felt like maybe the only way I’m ever going to deal with it is by talking about it. Talking about it and doing something about it.”

Giving evidence in court was “very traumatic” and “like repeating a nightmare over and over again”, but she said: “I just had to keep going. I had to tell the truth.”

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