Met Police officer who arranged to meet girl, 13, for sex jailed for five years

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

A Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officer has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for arranging to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex.

Detective Constable Francois Olwage was handed the sentence at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday after he was found guilty of trying to meet the teenager when he was “on duty working from home”.

Olwage, 52, a father-of-three who was serving with the Met’s specialist operations unit, was convicted of grooming what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl he had met on the Lycos online chat forum.

But the court heard that he was actually chatting with an undercover police officer pretending to be the girl using the username of Smile Bear, before moving to WhatsApp using the name Caitlin.

The trial heard that after two weeks of explicit sexual conversations in October 2021, Olwage, of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, arranged to meet the “girl”, who had told him that she lived in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Peter Shaw, prosecuting, told the jury that Olwage had been listed as “on duty working from home” on 28 October 2022, the date he travelled by train to Basingstoke with the aim of meeting the “girl”.

Olwage was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant in Basingstoke by two undercover officers as he was about to buy a McFlurry ice cream to take to his meeting with “Caitlin”.

When searched, the officers found in his bag two condoms, a bottle of lubricant and a packet of Tadalafil erectile disfunction tablets.

There was also a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates which Mr Shaw suggested was a present for the “girl”.

Olwage told the court that he “never believed” Smile Bear was a 13-year-old girl and that he thought it was an adult “playing out a fantasy”. He also denied any sexual interest in children.

Olwage was convicted of attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause/incite a girl aged 13 to engage in sexual activity, and attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 following grooming.

He also pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to an offence of improperly exercising his police powers and privileges in order to receive the “benefit of sexual gratification”.

Adrienne Knight, defending, said that Olwage, who had served with the Met for nine years and seven years for Hertfordshire Constabulary, had submitted a letter expressing his “sorrow for what he had done”.

Ms Knight said that Olwage was “vulnerable” at the time, having gone through a divorce.

Sentencing Olwage, Judge Jane Miller QC told him: “You were a highly regarded police officer with considerable experience.

“You were expected to uphold the law but by trying to take advantage of a vulnerable child, albeit fictional, you showed a disregard for the public trust and confidence that is held in your office.”

Senior crown Prosecutor Marc Thompson from the CPS said: “Francois Olwage had every intention of grooming and meeting a 13-year-old girl. He denied any sexual interest in children, yet the evidence we presented was strong enough for the jury to be sure he was guilty.

“Olwage‘s messages made it clear he believed he was in contact with a child. Despite this belief, he exchanged messages about sexual acts, and was grooming her. On the day he planned to meet with his victim, he abandoned his police duties to pursue sexual gratification from someone he believed to be a child.

“No actual children were in danger, but it has given us a glimpse into what this man is capable of doing when he thinks he can rely on the anonymity of the internet. This is made all the more serious because he has broken the trust of the public he has sworn to protect.”