Sentencing remarks: R v Oliver Perry-Smith
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 29 April 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Criminal |
| Court | Crown Court |
R
-v-
Oliver Perry-Smith
Reading Crown Court
Sentencing Remarks of Mr Justice Bryan
29 April 2022
1. Oliver Perry-Smith, on 15 February 2022, on your first appearance in the Crown Court at
Reading, you entered guilty pleas to 3 counts of misconduct in a public office in relation
to 6 separate female complainants (count 2 Ms P, Count 3 Ms H, Count 4 Ms E, Ms G,
Ms D and Ms F) in that whilst a serving police officer with Thames Valley Police you
misconducted yourself in a way that amounted to an abuse of the public’s trust by either
engaging in, or seeking to engage in, sexual activity with, or making inappropriate
remarks to, female members of the public whom you had met in your course of duty as a
police officer, and on occasions you did so whilst on duty and in uniform.
2. On 30 March 2022 you also entered guilty pleas to 2 counts of unauthorised access to
computer material, contrary to section 1(3) of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, namely
accessing the Police National Computer for an unauthorised purpose to obtain information
about two of the complaints (Count 5 Ms E who is also the complainant in relation to
Count 3, and Count 6 Ms B and other family members).
3. I must now sentence you for this catalogue of offending spanning a period of over 4 years,
and in respect of no less than 6 complainants in relation to the misconduct alone, all
committed in your position as a serving police officer with Thames Valley Police and in
circumstances where the complainants were entitled to consider that in relation to your
contact with them, you would behave properly and appropriately towards them in the
discharge of your responsibilities as a police officer. You failed to do so, and in
consequence, have caused substantial harm to those with whom you came into contact, as
well as dishonouring your hardworking colleagues and the wider Police Service in which
you served.
4. It is right to recognise at the outset the very serious nature of such offending. In this
regard the words of the Vice President of the Court of Appeal Criminal Division in R v
Butler [2021] EWCA Crim 1868 at [41] bear repeating, and are entirely apposite in the
context of your offending:
“Offences of this kind often attract wide publicity, and they entirely overshadow the
countless occasions when officers behave with honour and propriety. The
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