POLICE OFFICER WHO FOSTERED CHILD SEX ABUSE VICTIM WENT AHEAD TO ABUSE HER

Police officer who fostered a 14-year-old girl after she was rescued from child sex abuse went on to abuse her himself, a court heard.

Social workers placed the teenager in the care of the serving

Metropolitan Police officer and his wife and moved her 300 miles to live with the couple.

Police arrested the officer when the teenager was found hiding in a stairwell near his flat after she was removed from his care. Indecent pictures of them were found on her mobile phone.

Prosecutors say the girl now 16, is so emotionally damaged she regularly self harms, has post traumatic stress disorder and has repeatedly attempted to kill herself.

The girl had been left at the mercy of various "inappropriate men" by her manipulative and drug addicted mother before being rescued.

Details of the scandal emerged as former gym instructor Andrew Timblin, 60, was jailed for 21 years after he was found guilty of raping the victim and another teenage girl, aged 17 in unrelated attacks.

Two other men were acquitted of sex charges whilst the girl's 40-year old mother - who has five other children - was given a nine month sentence suspended for a year for child cruelty.

The policeman who is in his 30s was jailed for seven years at a separate hearing.

Judge Jeffery Lewis

Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester was told the girl had lived a stable family environment in Lancashire with her father and two siblings after being removed from the care of her mother in 2004 over her junkie lifestyle.

The mother - who cannot be named for legal reasons - lost touch with her daughter but in 2014 she contacted her over Facebook and falsely claimed the girl's father wasn't her real dad.

She then encouraged the youngster to come and live with her by portraying her father in a "bad light." The girl was so curious about her mother she left home - only to end up sleeping rough with her in a churchyard for two nights.

The mother then confiscated her daughter's spare clothing and sold them before leaving her alone with a series of older men whilst she went to get drugs.

The girl would regularly go missing and police called to find her, located her in a hotel room with a man aged 33 and also at the home of a hoodlum convicted of involvement in drugs and guns.

Despite her chaotic lifestyle she went back to her mother and was eventually introduced by her mother to burly Timblin who was known as "the Bear" in his hometown of Stockport and who has a tattoo of the words 'Sex Machine' inked across his stomach.

The teenager was left with ex-bodybuilder Timblin despite his hardman reputation and the youngster's tearful pleas to her mother not to leave her alone with him.

The girl who was seen to suffer panic attacks when she knew she was about to be left with Timblin was raped by him when he offered to watch a film with her.

He assaulted her again on a subsequent occasion in similar circumstances. Police were called in when she told her older brother about the rapes and pleaded to come home and he alerted their father.

When officers located the girl she initially denied she had been raped but when she was separated from her mother, she revealed her torment.

In July 2014 she was placed in foster care with the policeman and his wife but she was removed from the placement the following December when the officer himself went to police and admitted he was having an affair with her.

Detectives initially took no criminal action as the girl claimed nothing had happened between them but the truth emerged in January 2015 when she was reported missing from her grandmother's home.

It emerged she and the officer had stayed in hotel in Stockport before going back to his flat in Essex. He later pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child and child abduction.

Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting, said the girl had "been removed from the stable home life given for 10 years by her father" by a mother who was a "homeless drug addict with a chaotic lifestyle who could never have offered a child a safe and secure home."

He added: "She lured her daughter to leave her father's home and join her in her chaotic lifestyle, variously sleeping rough or dossing with her associates. She used the fact she had care of her daughter for sympathy in order to gain access to the homes of others to stay.

"As a result of the mother's neglect, the girl was sexually assaulted and raped. It was well known that Timblin was an unsuitable person to have care of her and the girl's mother was apparently aware of that, as it is she who told her daughter.

"Despite this she left the girl in his sole care constantly whilst she went out, she is believed to use drugs. The daughter begged her mother not to leave her with Timblin and begged to be allowed to accompany her mother - but her pleas were ignored.

"An associate noticed the girl was extremely distressed and vomiting - he likened this to a panic attack.

"The mother lied and manipulated her daughter, used her daughter to obtain bed and board and left her with inappropriate males despite the distress shown by her."

Mr Blackshaw said the mother had also encouraged her daughter to run away when she was placed in care and that caused her to be sent to the foster home in Essex.

Timblin denied wronging but was convicted of rape, indecent assault, unlawful wounding and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He will be on the sex offenders register for an 'indefinite period'.

Judge Jeffery Lewis said the girl had been affected "significantly" and told Timblin: "You betrayed the innocence of her childhood for your sexual gratification.

"She was abused by you at a significantly younger age at a time of transitions from child hood to womanhood and all the emotional and physical changes that involves.

"She will be in the very early stages of dealing with the aftermath of your conduct towards her.

"She is a very young woman with her life before her. It's to be hoped she will be able to transcend the impact and make her proper place in the world and move on."