Locations
Henlow, Bedfordshire, SG16
Description
A former Bedfordshire Police officer who targeted vulnerable teenage girls over social media for sexual gratification has been jailed for over three years today (Wednesday 16 October).
Elliot Wright, aged 29 from Henlow, Bedfordshire, was working as an officer in the collaborated Roads Policing Unit when he arranged to meet a teenage girl who was at risk after finishing a shift on 21 March this year.
The girl, from Hertfordshire, was subject to a deprivation of liberty order for her own safety. Staff at her care home contacted police when they saw her getting into a car, and officers were able to track down Wright’s vehicle near his home in Bedfordshire a short time later and arrested him.
The victim told officers Wright had asked her to delete his messages before he was stopped. Following his arrest by Hertfordshire Constabulary officers, detectives traced potential further victims on his social media including a 16-year-old girl who he had paid in return for sexual images.
An investigation into Wright, led by Hertfordshire Constabulary, showed he had been aware she was vulnerable and often needed money to buy food. He offered her £3 on one occasion for images.
He was soon charged and was immediately suspended by Bedfordshire Police at the time of his arrest. He had his vetting removed and was dismissed from the force in July.
Wright pleaded guilty to three counts of inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, arranging the sexual exploitation of a child, abduction of a child in care, paying for the sexual services of a child and perverting the course of justice. A further charge of misconduct in a public office, which he denied, was ordered to lay on his file.
He was sentenced by a High Court judge to a total of 42 months at St Albans Crown Court, and will serve half his sentence in prison and the second half on licence. Wright was also granted an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.