Richard Mills’ career has ended in disgrace after being labelled a ’f***ing dirty pervert’
A Greater Manchester Police sergeant has been jailed for sexually assaulting two women. Detective Sergeant Richard Mills forced their hands onto his crotch while he was on duty.
The 42-year-old father-of-two from Rochdale joined the force in 2006. After 18 years, his career - which included investigating sex crimes - has ended in disgrace. He’s now been jailed for 18 months following a Liverpool Crown Court trial.
Jurors found he molested two women on separate occasions. A judge said he ’failed to learn [his] lesson’ after being warned about his behaviour following the first offence.
One of his victims, who he assaulted after telling her his wife was pregnant, labelled Mills a ’f*****g dirty pervert’. One woman said he was a front seat passenger in a car she was driving, when he started telling her about ’sexual things he liked to do’, the trial was told.
She told the court he told her he ’wasn’t getting any sex because his wife was pregnant’. The judge later clarified his wife was not pregnant at the time, but did have a young baby.
While she was driving, Mills lifted her hand from the gearstick and placed it on top of his trousers and over his penis which appeared to be erect, the court was told. The woman officer told the sergeant to ’f*** off’.
The woman confided to others about the attack, but made no formal complaint to police bosses at the time. The trial revealed she said it was ’instilled in [her] head that you just don’t make complaints against cops... take it and suck it up’.
Detective Sergeant Richard Mills (Image: Lynda Roughley)
The woman told the jury: "I was driving with my hands on the gear stick. It’s just how I drive. He’s telling me what sexual positions he liked, how he liked to have sex, how he wasn’t getting any because his wife was pregnant. This went on and on and on. There’s no response from me. I was just driving. Then he took my hand off the gear stick and put it on his penis and he put it on there at which point I said ’f*** off Rick’ and drove with both hands on the wheel."
In a police video interview played to the jury, the woman said of Mills that she ’wouldn’t touch him with a barge-pole’ and that he was a ’f*****g dirty pervert’.
The jury cleared Mills of two other alleged sexual assaults against the woman, one in which he was alleged have walked up behind her and put his hands on her breasts; and another in which he was alleged to have approached her from behind and slapped her on the bottom.
The jury found he sexually assaulted a second younger woman in the same way - lifting her hand and placing it onto his crotch. The woman said he had earlier told her she looked ’really nice’ and that he was ’turned on’, the trial heard.
The woman said Mills picked up her left hand and placed it ’on his crotch area’ and pressed it onto his ’hard’ penis for ’several seconds’, jurors heard. The woman pulled away her hand and tucked it under her legs, which she crossed. She said Mills later asked her ’sexually explicit questions’ - including who the oldest person she had slept with was; and if she had ever had sex in a car or while at work.
The woman ’felt uncomfortable’ but did not make a formal complaint until she read a story in the Manchester Evening News about an unconnected police officer, the court heard. Mills was acquitted of another sexual assault allegation made by a third woman, who alleged he had stroked her over her tights from the inside of her leg down to her ankle.
Mills, of Oakley Way, Wardle, Rochdale, denied five counts of sexual assault. The jury convicted him of two of the charges and cleared him of the remaining three. He broke down in tears when the verdicts were announced at the end of his trial in December and collapsed into a chair in the dock with his head in his hands.
In statements read in court, the women spoke of the impact of Mills’ crimes. "I known I’ll struggle going forward and will take time to heal," one said.
Hunter Grey, defending, said Mills still denies the offences, adding: "What he saw as acceptable banter he now appreciates as unacceptable, particularly in the modern environment. He is motivated to change and address that side of his personality."
Judge David Swinnerton said: "When police officers commit offences like this or any other sort of offence you undermine every other officer because it damages public trust in the police." He jailed Mills for 18 months and ordered him to sign the sex offender register for 10 years.
Following the sentencing, Detective Superintendent David Jones, head of investigations at GMP’s internal affairs division, told the M.E.N: "This has only come about because of the bravery of the victims in coming forward."
He said Mills was responsible for ’inappropriate predatory sexual behaviour’ against women. Mills was ’in a position of power and responsibility’, he added. "I would suggest he’s shown no remorse. The level of abuse for someone of his responsibility and trust is disgusting," he said.
GMP are set to sack Mills and are initiating moves to strip the officer of his pension, Det Supt Jones added. "Cowardly, Mills denied any wrongdoing," he said. "He has been held accountable for the harm he caused after the victims endured a two-week trial and testified in front of a jury.
"Their tenacity and strength shown throughout our investigation and legal proceedings is commendable and should be recognised as the driving force behind reaching today’s outcome, whereby Mills is starting a jail term as a convicted sex offender. He is unfit to serve the public and has been barred from policing."
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