Lauren Taylor: victim details ‘fight for justice’ as Met Police serial rapist Adam Provan is jailed

Lauren Taylor was just 16 when she was raped by Met Police officer Adam Provan.

It was 2010, and she had met the serving PC for a blind date after he lied to her about his age. He promised a walk in a park in Romford, east London, followed by a trip to the cinema. Instead, he took her to a woodland and raped her.

After the attack, Provan, 31 at the time, acted as if nothing had happened - driving Lauren to a playground and buying her a milkshake. Then, he sexually assaulted her again.

Yesterday, more than a decade later, Provan, now 44, was jailed for 16 years following his sentencing at Wood Green Crown Court. He was found guilty in June of two counts of rape against Lauren, and a further six counts of rape against a fellow female police officer - who the “Jekyll and Hyde” PC was said to have tormented as part of a “campaign of controlling, abusive behaviour.”

Lauren, now 29, has the legal right to remain anonymous as a sexual abuse survivor. However, she has chosen to publicly share her story in the hopes of encouraging others to come forward with their experiences.

In an interview with PA, Lauren explained that giving evidence in court was “extremely traumatic” and “like repeating a nightmare over and over again”. But, she said: “I just had to keep going. I had to tell the truth.”

The fight for justice however was made all the more excruciating by the fact that it has taken three trials to get to this point. Lauren first reported to the Met Police that she had been raped by Provan in 2016, but when the case went to court, it ended in a hung jury.

In 2018, at a retrial, Provan was convicted of two counts of rape and sentenced to nine years in prison. He was sacked from the Met in 2019, but after spending just three years and three months behind bars, his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Lauren said: “It was in 2022 when I was contacted to be told that he’d won an appeal, he was out. The police came to me and they said: ‘Would you do a retrial? This is to do with you. This is your choice. We’re not forcing you into anything’. [But] I already knew what my answer was going to be. It was always going to be yes. I was always going to fight so hard for my justice.

“I think more so because of who he was, being a Metropolitan Police officer. He misused his job and treated people terribly. I had to do everything I could to get him back in prison.”

Provan faced further charges at the third trial because another woman, a fellow Met Police officer, came forward in 2019 to say that he had raped her too. She had gathered the courage to do this after hearing Lauren’s victim impact statement at the trial in 2018.

The court heard how Provan had raped the female PC six times between 2003 and 2005. She told Met Police bosses back in 2005 that Provan was stalking and harassing her - but the complaint only resulted in words of warning.

She said she felt the Met Police had failed to protect her by not investigating Provan - and added that she felt “guilty” about the people after her who may have come into contact with Provan. “This has preyed on my mind,” she said.

Judge Noel Lucas said the female police officer’s treatment by the Met had been “abysmal”. He continued: “I hope it never happens again.”

He added that if her complaints had been taken more seriously, Lauren, who met Provan half a decade later, may have been spared the trauma she suffered. But the Met had been “more concerned with looking after one of their own,” the judge concluded.

Speaking on her feelings towards Provan, Lauren said: “I’m angry at what he’s done to me, I’m angry about who he was. He was a police officer. We go to them to be protected, and I wasn’t protected.

“I’m [also] angry at the lack of remorse that he’s shown throughout this whole process. I’ve been to court three times. He’s still fully denied what he’s done and even after being in prison for a certain amount of years, he’s not had time to reflect and he’s not changed, he’s still who he is.

“The reason why I did the last retrial was because I wanted to make sure that he didn’t go out and harm anyone else.”

On her advice to others, she said: “Never be ashamed of what happened to you, because what happened to you is not your fault. When you’re ready, talk to someone. It doesn’t have to be a police officer, it can be a family member, it can be a friend, it can be a helpline.

“You can’t do anything until you’re ready to face it. You might never be ready to face it, [and] that’s okay too. For me, I couldn’t rest until I’d come forward and spoken about it.”

Sentencing, Judge Lucas told Provan: “The persistence and seriousness of your offending is clear when set out in these stark terms.

“What is particularly troubling about this case is that at the time of each of the offences you were a serving police officer – someone who members of the public had an entitlement to feel was a person of the very highest trustworthiness. By your actions you have brought disgrace on the police force.”

Provan also displayed a “cold-blooded entitlement to sex,” Judge Lucas added, and fit the criteria for a “dangerous” offender due to his “fascination bordering on obsession with young women”. This had been highlighted during the sentencing, when it was revealed that Provan had 751 female contacts in his mobile phone.

Meanwhile, after the hearing, the Met Police said it is working to see if there are any further victims - and promised to review Provan’s history while at the force and before he joined to see whether action could have been taken sooner.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said: “I am sure the public will be as shocked and revolted at Provan’s offences as we are here in the Met. He abused his position as a police officer to win the trust of both these women. His actions are utterly deplorable.

“Both women have been enormously strong and courageous in giving evidence to the court – incredibly three times for one of the women – and ensuring Provan is now behind bars. I am so sorry for the pain and suffering he has caused them.”

If you have been affected by issues discussed in this article, help is available at Rape Crisis. You can call their 24-hour helpline for free on 0808 500 2222.