West Yorkshire Police officer jailed for raping young woman more than 20 years ago

Lavender, who was a police constable based in the Leeds police district at the time of his suspension, faced a re-trial on the rape allegation in October and was convicted unanimously by a jury after he denied the charge.

He appeared for sentence at the Crown Court on (Tuesday (Nov 3).

Rupert Doswell KC, prosecuting, said Lavender – who was a police staff member at the time of the offence but not a serving officer until 2005 – had pinned the woman down and raped her after she told him to stop.

He was not on duty at the time of the incident, which occurred at a property in West Yorkshire.

In a statement read out by the prosecution, the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the rape had had a “massive impact on her self-worth” and a “huge impact” on her life.

She said she couldn’t believe someone could make her “feel so low” to satisfy their own “self-gratification”.

The victim - who finally reported the offence in 2024, more than two decades after the rape - said the incident even made her distrust police due to what Lavender had done.

She had also felt an inexplicable “guilt and shame” for what he had done to her.

Defence barrister Samuel Myerson KC said Lavender, a married father, had been a serving police officer in the West Yorkshire force for the past 22 years but his career now lay in tatters.

Judge Simon Hickey said the rape had caused the victim “severe psychological harm”.

He said Lavender - who had a mentoring role at West Yorkshire Police but was suspended by the force after the allegation was made - had used his considerable physique to pin the woman down before raping her.

He told Lavender: “You are a large individual, a powerful man. You pinned (the victim) down. She struggled and wriggled, but she couldn’t get away and that’s when she was (raped).

“She asked you to stop and you didn’t.”

Mr Hickey added: “As a former police officer, you have lost everything. You have lost your job; you have lost a good deal of the relationship with your wife; you have lost your good reputation.”

Lavender, from Castleford, was jailed for seven years and ordered to sign on the sex-offenders’ register for life.

At the time of Lavender’s conviction in October, West Yorkshire Police said it would continue with misconduct proceedings against him to ensure he was “barred from working in any role in policing in the future".

Detective Chief Superintendent Tanya Wilkins, head of the force’s Professional Standards Directorate, said at the time: "The victim has lived with the trauma of what PC Lavender did to her for two decades before coming forward to report this offence in 2024.

"I would like to express my admiration for the bravery she has shown. I do not underestimate the courage it takes to report something like this, and even more so knowing that by that time, the man responsible was a police officer."