Serving police officer, 31, is found guilty of raping a girl under 13 and wiping his phone in bid to cover his tracks as judge warns him he faces years in jail
- James Ford was today convicted of ten counts of sexual abuse against same girl
- He has served just under two years’ service in Hertfordshire Constabulary
- But he was suspended last year following Cambridgeshire Constabulary probe
- Ford was warned he faces lengthy custodial sentence when sentenced on Friday
A serving police officer has been convicted of raping a girl aged under 13 before wiping his phone in a bid to cover his tracks – as a judge warned him he now faces years in prison.
James Ford, who has served just under two years’ service in Hertfordshire Constabulary, was today found guilty of ten counts of sexual abuse against the same child following less than a day of deliberation by jurors at Cambridge Crown Court.
The 31-year-old, of Bishop’s Stortford, was convicted of four counts of rape, four of sexual assault and two of causing or inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity.
Ford was also found guilty of carrying out an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice after he ‘deliberately wiped his phone by factory resetting his Samsung Mobile phone’.
The offences, which he had denied, took place between 2019 and 2021.
James Ford, a serving response officer for Hertfordshire Police, pictured outside Cambridge Crown Court today
Ford has been convicted of raping a girl aged under 13 before wiping his phone in a bid to cover his tracks
Ford will be sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday. He has been warned that he faces a ‘lengthy custodial sentence’
Mr Justice Simon Bryan, remanded Ford in custody ahead of sentencing on Friday.
Releasing jurors, he told them that Ford was ‘obviously going to have a lengthy custodial sentence – the sentence will be determined by me on Friday’.
A spokesperson for Hertfordshire Police said Ford had been suspended since October 22 following an independent investigation by officers in Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s Public Protection Unit.
At the time, Deputy Chief Constable Bill Jephson said: ‘I am deeply concerned that a serving Hertfordshire officer has been charged with such serious offences.’
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