“IT’S all lies.”

Alan Saffery wanted the last word as he was lead out of a dock at Worcester Crown Court to start a 12 year prison sentence.

Earlier last Friday, a jury had decided that the lying was on Saffery’s part, convicting the former police officer - by an 11-1 majority - of sexual offences against a girl under 13 between 1977-1981 and returning a unanimous guilty verdict on his possession of child pornography.

Sixty-one year old Saffery had been one of Herefordshire’s longest serving police officers on his retirement in 2002.

A fixture of life at Hereford central police station where worked patrol shifts, Saffery went with two commendations having tackled an armed robbery and surviving being stabbed.

Saffery, of Spinney Grove, Hampton Dene, Hereford, was thought well enough of to soon after be asked to return as civilian helping with the casework of the criminal justice unit.

All that was shut out as the door down to the cells closed on Saffery’s last word late on Friday afternoon.

The court had heard that all the lies were Saffery’s own.

Now, West Mercia Police brands Saffery a “dangerous sexual predator” who is listed on the sex offenders register for life.

Speaking after the sentence, Detective Inspector Richard Rees, of Herefordshire CID, said:

“Outwardly, Saffery was a respected police officer and an upstanding member of the community; however, behind closed doors he was a dangerous sexual predator who took advantage of a young girl - his past has caught up with him.”

There were tributes, too, for the victim and what it took for her to come forward in her 40s and, as outlined in her victim statement speak about the “shame and repulsion” she had carried with her for so long and into her attempts to form “normal” relationships.

During the trial, it was revealed that the girl had also been the victim of another recently convicted paedophile.

John Bishop, 65, of Burton Gardens, Weobley, is starting a 14 year sentence for historic sex offences against a girl under 13 and indecent assault against her brother when he was aged 13 to 15.

In evidence, the trial heard how Saffery groomed and repeatedly assaulted the victim while he was in his 20s and a serving officer.

The court heard that Saffery's offending started soon after he moved in as a lodger at the home of the girl’s relatives.

In a police video played to the court, the victim said Saffery would take “every chance” to engage in sexual activity with her.

They first had sex when she was 12, the court heard, and it stopped when she was 15 with her realisation that the “relationship” was wrong.

Saffery told the court he had “consensual” sex with the victim once at his then home in Leominster when she was 16.

Beyond that, he said, he was never in a situation where the two of them were alone.

Saffery was found guilty of unlawful sex with a girl under 13, indecent assault and making indecent photographs of children.

The latter offences relate to child pornography images found on Saffery’s computer in 2013 when the abuse allegations were under investigation.

Saffery was cleared on two further charges of raping another girl when she was 15 in 1986.

In July 2001, Saffery was one of two officers stabbed after responding to a “domestic” in Steen’s Bridge, near Leominster. Despite being wounded himself, Saffery used his baton to fell an attacker who had already stabbed the other officer five times.

Passing sentence, Judge Robert Juckes told Saffery that he had used the “infatuated” girl when he felt like it and whenever the opportunity arose, having groomed her within weeks of meeting her.