Ex-police officer raped vulnerable teen girl after calling himself ‘British Bobby’ as he groomed her online

AN EX-police officer who repeatedly raped a teenage girl and called her his “slave” after grooming her online has been jailed for 21 years.

Mark Lindow, 61, targeted his victim under the name ‘British bobby’ on messaging app Kik before subjecting her to a series of horrific sex attacks.

Former police officer Mark Lindow has been jailed for 21 years after grooming and raping a teenage girl

He invited his friend Kurt Barker to sexually assault the girl

On one occasion, the former Kent Police cop invited a friend, Kurt Baker, to join them at a Travelodge hotel where he filmed him raping the teen.

Lindow was in the Kent force for 14 years and dealt with border control at the Channel Tunnel.

Horrific details of her ordeal came to light after a member of the public alerted police to a girl walking into the River Medway in Chatham, Kent, in August last year.

She was found in a distressed state, and subsequently revealed that 6ft 2in, 17st Lindow had repeatedly abused her and even filmed himself raping her during their first in-person meeting.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the “vulnerable and naïve” girl told police forced her to have sex with him on several occasions and was violent if she refused.

Lindow also referred to her as his “slave” and said he wanted her to tell people he “owned” her.

Lindow, of Folkestone, Kent, was found guilty of five offences of rape, one of making an indecent photo of a child, and one of distributing an indecent photo, all committed between January and August 2020.

He had admitted two other offences of making indecent photos of a child ahead of his trial.

His co-defendant Kurt Baker, whom he also met online, was convicted of three charges of rape committed on August 7 last year.

At Lindow’s sentencing hearing on Friday, Judge Julian Smith heard the disgraced ex-cop had also been investigated over allegations he engaged in sexual communication on Kik with someone he believed to be a 12-year-old girl.

But the “girl” was in fact ‘a decoy’ police office.

The court heard when Lindow was identified by his Skype username and told he would be arrested and his phone seized, he attended a police station and handed it over, saying he had accidentally run over it in his car.

Judge Smith said the victim was subjected to “corruption and brutalisation” and then “deliberately targeted and controlled” by Lindow.

He added that the teenager’s extreme vulnerabilities would have been “overwhelmingly obvious” as he “dominated, intimidated and degraded” her, including “offering” her to Baker.

“Neither saw her as a human being but as an opportunity for sexual gratification,” said Judge Smith.

‘EXPLOITATION’

Concluding that Lindow does pose a danger to the public, the judge ordered he will have to serve at least two-thirds of his 21-year jail term before he can apply for parole.

During the trial, prosecutor Daniel Stevenson told the court the victim suffered “child sexual exploitation, humiliation and blackmail”.

The court heard although those the blackmailers hadn’t been identified, one of them had ‘introduced’ Lindow to the girl in late 2019.

But instead of helping her, Lindow treated her as his ‘sexual object’, the court heard.

Lindow, who was not a serving police officer at the time having left the force in 2015, hit her and repeatedly made her do things “she did not want to do”, Mr Stevenson said.

She told authorities she repeatedly said ‘no’ to Lindow’s demands, but “unfortunately, she did not have the ability to extract herself from the situation she found herself in”.

The girl also told police that her blackmail ordeal, which included threats of rape and even death against her family, started after she had shared nude photos of herself online.

Superintendent Keith Roberts, of Kent Police, said: “These two men subjected the victim of this case to the worst possible kind of exploitation and abuse.

“I commend her for her bravery in coming forward and reporting this to us. They were fully aware of what they were doing and completely dehumanised her.

“Despite there being clear and obvious evidence which showed they were the perpetrators of this offending, they remorselessly chose to take this case to trial.

“I am pleased we have now secured justice and that these exceptionally dangerous men are unable to target other victims.”