'Who do you turn to if you can't turn to the police?' Will Mellor on Cops Gone Bad S2
Cops Gone BadHosted by actor Will Mellor, the second series of Cops Gone Bad investigates seven new cases of police officers who abuse their position and harm the very people they’ve sworn to protect.
Throughout the series, which starts Monday, 17th February at 9pm on Crime+Investigation, Will is assisted by retired Metropolitan Police detectives Howard Groves and Fiona Mallon to unpack the investigations that brought offenders to justice. Leading psychologist Serena Simmons also provides valuable insight into the criminal mind to explain how a once-trusted protector can turn into a dangerous predator.
Ahead of the new series that lifts the lid on how police officers find themselves on the wrong side of the law, Will shares why the show is important to him.
'The main thing is to keep the pressure on the powers that be and to keep asking how we rebuild trust with the public? How do we stop narcissists and control freaks getting the badge?'
Harrowing cases of betrayal and abuse
Cops Gone Bad explores many devastating situations, including an officer who groomed hundreds of youngsters through Snapchat and a copper who tried to murder his ex-girlfriend. But for Will, a father of two daughters, there was one particularly harrowing case.
In 2010, 31-year-old Adam Provan, a serving Metropolitan Police Officer, lied about his age to take 16-year-old Lauren Taylor on a cinema date. But instead, he raped her in a local park and later in a children’s playground. Lauren would remain silent for six years before coming forward, kick-starting an investigation that revealed decades of sexual abuse from Provan towards young women and even fellow police officers.
'Who do you turn to if you can't turn to the police? Who do I tell my kids to turn to?', Will asks about the case that features in episode one. 'Adam Provan, who raped a 16-year-old girl, was someone her dad said she could trust because he was a police officer. Now my daughter's 16.'
Another disturbing case is that of Cliff Mitchell. In episode three, Will uncovers the story of an upstanding officer in the Metropolitan Police serving in West London. But in private, Mitchell was a violent rapist who terrorised his victim over the course of years – telling her that ‘no one will believe you... I’m a cop’.
After he was exposed, an investigation revealed that Mitchell had also been accused of raping a young girl dozens of times, prior to joining the Met. Despite the serious allegations, Mitchell passed his police vetting without any issues.
It leads to uncomfortable questions for the Met, as Mitchell joined the force the same year Wayne Couzens murdered Sarah Everard.
'That says to me the message hasn't got out there. You’d think they would realise, “We cannot let one more person slip through this net” and then straight away, Mitchell slips through,' Mellor says. 'He may have seen Wayne Couzens on the news and thought he had a chance to get away with being a rapist. That sickens me.'
Rebuilding trust and examining psychology
For Will, one of the most fascinating aspects of Cops Gone Bad is examining the psychology of the perpetrators. Throughout the seven episodes, he attempts to understand what leads police officers to abandon and betray their responsibilities. Are they individuals joining policing for the wrong reason, or people who can’t handle the responsibility of their role?
'My question a lot of the time is, do you they join the force as a control freak or do people join the force and then get power hungry? Does the badge turn them into that kind of person? These are questions that we still need to ask.'
Many of the details in the series are highly shocking, made more so by the fact that the offenders are police officers. Will acknowledges that this may increase some viewers’ distrust of the police. However, he stresses the importance of watching the series with an open mind, and maintaining a healthy respect for policing.
'I always say that with this series, we’re talking about a tiny minority of an otherwise fantastic police force out there.'
'You have got to remember, it's great police work that caught these bad police officers. You have to remember that balance. Don't come out of this thinking we can't trust the police. You can, but what we need to do is make sure the vetting is up to standard, and we stop letting bad apples slip through the net because one is simply too many.'
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