A POLICE officer continued to receive his salary for 18 days following his conviction for rape, it has been revealed.

Devon and Cornwall Police has acknowledged the officer, who was convicted in February 2025, carried on receiving his pay, and pension contributions, after his conviction and that it ‘should not have happened’.

The matter came to light after Newton Abbot MP Martin Wrigley raised the issue.

He also said the case, which involved a serving officer and victim from his constituency, called for improvements in police vetting procedures.

Last year the officer was sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty of rape. He will be on the sex offenders register for life.

Mr Wrigley said the case had caused ‘profound and lasting trauma’ to the survivor and exposed serious weaknesses in systems designed to protect the public from predatory behaviour by officers.

The MP said it was ‘unacceptable’ the officer had not been dismissed immediately upon conviction of rape and was still a serving police officer whilst in prison. Taxpayer-funded pension contributions continued after his conviction.

‘It is deeply disturbing that an officer who abused his authority to inflict serious harm continued to benefit from the very public they betrayed,’ he added.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said the matters raised by Mr Wrigley had been the subject of a complaint made to the force in April 2025, which has since been resolved.

The police officer was dismissed without notice following an Accelerated Misconduct Hearing (AMH) on March 12 2025, 18 working days after his conviction.

The spokesman said: ‘On this occasion, we recognise the AMH could have taken place earlier, but was held at the earliest available opportunity.

‘We acknowledge the officer continued to receive pay after he was convicted, and this should not have happened.’

Detective Superintendent Alexandra Doughty, head of the Professional Standards Department, said: ‘Following this case, organisational learning has been implemented in relation to both points made to enhance our procedures.

‘We are confident the changes we have adopted to our practices will help ensure that this situation would not be repeated.

‘The officer was quite rightly dismissed and jailed for his despicable actions.’

Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez said her office had put in place the strongest scrutiny measures and processes currently allowed by law.

The law relating to the vetting of police officers was revised in 2024.

Ms Hernandez said it also allowed her to scrutinise any case which met the technical requirements for consideration of pension revocation.

She said: ‘This is a complex, detailed, legal process with a number of steps, including the securing of both any comments made by the Judiciary, and the agreement of the Home Secretary.

‘As such, each case takes some considerable time to progress.

‘It is important to be aware there are different levels of vetting, and it needs to be acknowledged that although there have been improvements to national standards, vetting will never be infallible.’

She said the dismissal of police officers on conviction was a matter for the Chief Constable, and while ‘accelerated’ misconduct proceedings were possible, they still needed to meet the requirements of police regulations, which by law included certain notice periods.

‘Even under the new, more robust legislation, dismissal cannot be immediate upon conviction,’ she said.