Northamptonshire officer fired for predatory conduct, says panel
A former special constable would have been dismissed after he had "predatory" sexual contact with two intoxicated women, a police misconduct panel found.Andrew Lynam, who resigned from the Northamptonshire Police in 2024, was found to have engaged in sexual activity with two females in circumstances "where he knew that they had been drinking".It also found he "knew that neither had met him before and [he] took deliberate steps to be left alone with them".Mr Lynam did not attend the hearing which determined he had committed gross misconduct.
The hearing, which took place on 4-5 June, heard the incidents happened in February 2022 when the officer was on a night out with colleagues at Bar Rumba in Northampton town centre.According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the panel's report said he met two women, and walked them to their hotel room in company with other officers.It was alleged he had sexual intercourse with one and sexual contact with the other when he was left in their hotel room alone with them.
The panel found that Mr Lynam knew that both women were intoxicated due to their difficulty walking on the way back to the hotel and one being sick.It added the former officer would have known that one of the women was vulnerable, as she informed him of her mental health condition and that she lived in supported accommodation.The former officer maintained the sickness was faked and all of the sexual activity was consensual.But the panel said Mr Lynam "acted in a predatory way that was discreditable and lacked integrity".It added it "found the former officer's misconduct to be deplorable".Northamptonshire Police conducted a criminal investigation into the matter, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided that no further action would be taken.
Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
Two men charged after man slashed in street gang brawl in Shaw
Two men have been charged with a range of offences after a man was slashed in a street men from Shaw were due to appear before Manchester Magistrates Court over the fight which broke out at about 20:25 BST on Market Street in the town on Harvey, 25, of Durden Mews, is accused of affray and possession of an offensive Neild, 18, of Markenfield Drive, has been charged with affray, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of Class A drugs. Greater Manchester Police said the man's injuries were neither life-threatening nor life-changing. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Asylum seekers and foreign nationals are behind 'significant proportion' of child sex grooming gang cases, Casey report warns
Asylum seekers and foreign nationals are involved in a 'significant proportion' of ongoing police investigations into grooming gangs, an official report has warned. The long-awaited review by Whitehall troubleshooter Louise Casey was released yesterday after being commissioned at the start of the year. It found that councils, police forces and the Home Office repeatedly 'shied away' from dealing with 'uncomfortable' questions about the ethnicity of rapists preying on thousands of vulnerable girls. Baroness Casey last night hit out at 'do-gooders' who tried to bury the facts of such cases, yet only ended up giving racists 'more ammunition '. Despite years of warnings, she said, the quality of data collected at a national level remained 'woeful and a dereliction of public duty'. With ethnicity still recorded in only a third of cases, the baroness said it was impossible to be certain about patterns of offending at a national level. The report also examined a dozen major live police operations into grooming gangs and found a 'significant proportion' of suspects are asylum seekers or were born abroad. In one case in Newcastle, an asylum seeker convicted of offences 'spoke in a derogatory way about lack of morals in British girls and the ease with which he was able to access sex, drugs and alcohol '. In other developments: Downing Street refused to back down on the PM's toxic claim that Conservatives calling for a public inquiry were jumping on a 'far-Right bandwagon', despite now ordering one himself. Ms Cooper said she would change the law to ensure any adult having sex with a child aged under 16 is automatically charged with rape; Foreign nationals convicted of child-sex offences will be barred from claiming asylum; Lady Casey said a 2020 Home Office paper which dismissed concerns about the ethnicity of grooming gang offenders 'does not seem to be evidenced in research'. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said any asylum seekers found guilty of grooming children will have their applications rejected. 'We will do everything in our power to remove them. I do not believe the law is strong enough, that we have inherited, so we are bringing forward a change to the law so that anyone convicted of sexual offences is excluded from the asylum system and denied refugee status,' she said. But her report highlighted data collected by police in Rotherham, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire which showed a 'disproportionate number of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds' among those suspected of grooming offences. In Rotherham, an investigation into historical cases by the National Crime Agency found that two-thirds of suspects were of Pakistani heritage, despite them accounting for just 4 per cent of the local population. Lady Casey said it was 'not racist to want to examine the ethnicity of offenders'. But she pointed to a culture of public bodies avoiding the issue 'for fear of appearing racist, raising community tensions or causing community cohesion problems'. Her report said most local reviews had shown 'a palpable discomfort in any discussion of ethnicity'. And it said 'flawed data' was being 'used repeatedly to dismiss claims about 'Asian grooming gangs' as sensational, biased or untrue'. The crossbench peer told Sky News that establishing the facts can 'take the pain out of this'. She said: 'I think you've got sort of do-gooders that don't really want this to be found because, you know, 'Oh, God, then all the racists are going to be more racist'. 'Well, actually, people that are racist are going to use this anyway. All you're doing with the hate mongers and the racists is giving them more and more ammunition.' Lady Casey added: 'Follow the facts and if anything is ever difficult, have a really good look at it.' The report also accused the authorities of failing to take victims seriously, saying many girls who tried to report abuse had been 'ignored, treated like criminals and often arrested themselves'. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper issued a public apology on behalf of the state to the victims of the gangs. She said she offered 'an unequivocal apology for the unimaginable pain and suffering that you have suffered, and for the failure of our country's institutions, over decades, to prevent that harm and keep you safe'. Ms Cooper said she was accepting the recommendations of Lady Casey's 'damning' report in full – including ordering a public inquiry which Labour has resisted. The report triggered angry clashes in the Commons, where Kemi Badenoch rounded on Sir Keir Starmer for smearing those pressing for a public inquiry of jumping on a 'far-Right bandwagon '. The baroness said it was time to end the 'sanitised' language around so-called grooming gangs.' I want to set it out in unsanitised terms,' she wrote. 'We are talking about multiple sexual assaults committed against children by multiple men on multiple occasions; beatings and gang rapes.' The national inquiry will be time-limited and is likely to investigate offending in only a handful of local areas, despite warnings that similar activity may have taken place in 50 towns and cities across the country.
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Grooming gang victim reveals abusers' evil tactics to terrify her into silence as she blasts authorities for failing to save her
A grooming gang survivor has revealed the sick tactics her monster abusers would use to terrify her into silence. Fiona Goddard was raped and abused by at least 50 men in Bradford from the age of 14. The mother had been groomed by a gang of Asian men in 2008 when she and another girl ran away from her care home that was being targeted by the sick group. She had asked a man for a lighter, and what followed was months of them targeting her vulnerabilities and 'trying to make me feel like I had somewhere to belong'. Fiona said it quickly spiralled into years of abuse where she previously told Sky News that she was trafficked to Blackburn, Rotherham, Rochdale, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Oldham. The sordid gang would terrify Fiona into silence for years where they would show her shocking violent videos of people's skulls being crushed. She told Good Morning Britain: 'It started the threats where they would show me videos of them beating someone to death where you could actually see their skull caving in, or they would tell me "this is where we dumped her body", and then a few weeks later a body would be found there. 'They'd turn up after being involved in stabbings and then I would have to try and help them clean up all of that stuff. 'There was an illegal immigrant who was castrated in Pakistan and was wanted by the firing squad in the Philippines after he fled from Pakistan that also came over on the back of a lorry and he was there. They were telling us how he was wanted for going Rambo on women and children. 'There were all these levels where it was quite subtle and showing us they could be dangerous people. And then it did got to physical violence with threatening with vodka bottles and smashing them into my eyes and stuff like that.' By the age of 15 Fiona became pregnant by one of her rapists and gave birth days after her 16th birthday. But the newborn was soon taken from her arms and given up for adoption as she was told she couldn't keep her daughter. Yet the abuse carried on for another two years, with police laying the blame on her. It would not be until 2019 that the nine grooming gang members would face justice when they were jailed for more than 130 years. Fiona said the prosecution was one she had to fight 'tooth and nail for' having repeatedly reported the case to police for five years. 'Over the years from 2008 and 2013 I was found in cars with men and they [police] said I was the reason society was going downhill by putting working class men in danger,' she said. Izar Hussain (pictured left) was given a 16 year sentence and Parvaze Ahmed (pictured right) was jailed for 17 years Saeed Akhtar (left and right at court) was found guilty of one charge of rape and two charges of causing or inciting child prostitution 'I was called a child prostitute. I was accused of exchanging sex in return for gifts by 14. And described as running a brothel by 17. 'Repeatedly they said I was streetwise and knew how to look after myself that even though I was a missing person it wasn't a concern and they downgraded it. 'Then someone highlighted I had been on the child sex exploitation watchlist for a while so they upgraded it to medium. There was a lot of stuff like that where it wasn't taken seriously.' Fiona bravely waived her right to anonymity following the case as she 'didn't want people to think this was a reason to be ashamed anymore'. 'I didn't do anything wrong,' she said. She said at times the abuse had left her being shunned by society which had made her feel 'subhuman'. Fiona said: 'Like I was a lower grade of society because of the abuse that did occur it was me that seemed to be tainted.' Basharat Khaliq, known as Bash, was found guilty of five counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration. He was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years imprisonment. Fahim Iqbal (pictured left) was jailed for 7 years for aiding and abetting rape. Kieran Harris (pictured right) was jailed for 17 years, he was described by one of his victims as 'an evil, pixie-faced man' He was given 16 years for each of the five counts of rape, served concurrently, and four years for assault by penetration, to be served consecutively. Saeed Akhtar, known as Sid, was found guilty of one charge of rape and two charges of causing or inciting child prostitution He was jailed for 20 years. Naveed Akhtar, and known as Nav, was found guilty of two counts of rape and not guilty of a third allegation of rape. He was jailed for 17 years. Parvaze Ahmed, known as Pav, was found guilty of three charges of rape. He was jailed for 17 years. Izar Hussain, known as Billy Joe Joe, was found guilty of one rape and one attempted rape, and acquitted of two rapes. He was given a 16 year sentence. Kieran Harris was found guilty of two counts of rape. He was jailed for 17 years and was described by one of his victims as 'an evil, pixie-faced man'. Fahim Iqbal was found guilty of aiding and abetting one of rape. He was jailed for seven years. Mohammed Usman, known as Manny, was found guilty of two counts of rape. He was jailed for 17 years. Zeeshan Ali was jailed for 18 months for sexual assault (pictured left) and Saeed Akhtar (pictured right) was jailed for 20 years Basharat Khaliq (pictured left and right leaving court) was found guilty of five counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration. Zeeshan Ali, known as Twinny or T, was found guilty of one charge of sexual assault. He was jailed for 18 months. Judge Durham Hall said during his sentencing remarks that 'no court in England and Wales seems to have escaped grooming by groups or individuals of grown men of vulnerable young persons.' He said: 'As the knowledge of the opportunity to take advantage of damaged young people spreads, it is not uncommon for young men to get involved. 'In the trial it was clear you didn't get it, and some of you still do not get it now. 'The damage and hurt you have caused for your sexual pleasure has been revealed to all, and the lengths some of you went to corrupt and groom a girl are truly appalling, and then threaten and to rape her beyond description. '[The victims] were relentlessly, by Basharat Khaliq and the other eight of you, sexually abused following grooming and, whether there is or isn't a connection to the groomers through blatant violence, over a period of years.' 'The jury have seen this case for what it was. 'Clear, determined and insidious grooming.'
