West Yorkshire Police officer handed seven year sentence for raping a woman 24 years ago
PC Jo Lavender, the West Yorkshire Police officer who joined the force as a staff member in 2002, the same year he carried out the attack for which he has now been sentenced.York Crown Court, where the victim told the judge she had felt so low that someone would choose their own self-gratification over her wellbeing, with sentencing delivered more than two decades after the attack.
More than two decades passed before his victim came forward in December 2024, telling York Crown Court she had 'felt so low that someone would choose their own self gratification over my wellbeing'. The 45-year-old, working in Leeds District, had joined West Yorkshire Police as a staff member in 2002, the year of the attack, and became a warranted officer in 2005.
Victim thanked DC Devonshire for securing justice over an attack that 'lived with me for such a long time'.
Detective Chief Superintendent Tanya Wilkins praised her courage in reporting when 'the man responsible was a police officer'.
'We will listen and we will act,' Wilkins urged other victims, whatever the perpetrator's job.
