Chief Constable Lauren Poultney praised Leona Whitworth’s bravery in speaking out and said her anti-corruption officers will now work privately with Leona to pursue the case. Leona waived her anonymity to tell her story and says she is now confident the police will investigate what happened to her a decade ago. At the age of 13, he was preyed upon by a woman called Amanda Spencer, who was later jailed in 2014 for grooming vulnerable teenagers and then selling them to a gang of child abusers. One of Leona’s thugs was also jailed. Image: Amanda Spencer However, Leona recently said in an interview with Sky News that one of the men she was sold to was a police officer who later picked her up in his patrol car when she went missing. She hadn’t mentioned this at the time, thinking they wouldn’t believe her. Read Leona’s story: “I tried to pretend it wasn’t real…no one would believe me” At a neutral location, Leona spoke with the warden and then gave private information to an anti-corruption officer. Afterwards, Leona told Sky News: “The constable looks a very nice lady and looks driven. Something I’ve never seen before – maybe because she’s a woman. “For them to actually believe and want to help, that’s amazing. It’s new and a little overwhelming.” Image: Leona: “These situations make you feel like the loneliest person in the world” “There is no place in policing” Chief Constable Lauren Poultney told Sky News that tackling violence against women was a local and national priority and with sexual predators in the police force the challenge was to “spot the early warning signs and take a more robust approach”. . Image: Warden Lauren Poultney He added: “I chair the national anti-corruption advisory group and one of our key streams of work is sexual misconduct and sexual assault by police officers. “There is a group committed to bringing this issue to the fore across the country to identify those officers who commit sex offenses while on the job and ensure they are rooted out of policing. “There is no place in policing for sex offenders.” Lost, scared, afraid, alone Earlier this month, a police inspectorate report found that senior officers in forces across the UK were failing to tackle abusive officers and needed to improve vetting procedures for those entering the force Leona doesn’t want to relive the memories of her abuse, but says she does it for those kids out there somewhere who are still suffering. He said: “Right now there will be children who are lost, scared, scared, alone. They will see no way out. “These situations make you feel like the loneliest person in the world – and you shouldn’t be. You’re not alone, I promise.”
