Gary Wells-Burr

A former police officer, Gary Wells-Burr, has been sentenced to six years in prison for committing child sex offences against two young girls. Wells-Burr, aged 36 and from Needingworth in Cambridgeshire, served as a police constable with Hertfordshire Constabulary from 2003 until his dismissal in 2016. The offences occurred between 2010 and 2014, during which time he was still an active officer based at stations in Bishop's Stortford, Stevenage, and Hertford.

The case came to light following a report received by police in January 2015, leading to Wells-Burr's arrest while he was on duty. He was immediately suspended pending investigation. At Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday, 23 March 2018, Wells-Burr pleaded guilty to three serious charges: causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and sexual assault. These admissions related to the prolonged abuse of two victims—one girl subjected to repeated sexual abuse from the age of 12 to 16, and the second abused when she was 15 years old. The court heard that the abuse occurred on a weekly basis at times, highlighting the sustained and repeated nature of the offences.

Judge David Turner QC, presiding over the sentencing, described the acts as 'wickedness' and emphasised the lasting damage inflicted on the victims. He stated: 'You targeted two relatively young children and the abuse was repeated and sustained. The wickedness of what you have done will have a lasting and damaging impact on both of them.' The judge also noted that the victim impact statements provided 'painful reading', underscoring the profound emotional toll on the girls.

In addition to the guilty pleas, Wells-Burr faced other charges including one count of sexual assault of a child under 13 and two counts of sexual assault, to which he pleaded not guilty. These were ordered to lie on file, meaning they were neither pursued to conviction nor acquittal. Prior to the sex offence convictions, Wells-Burr had been dismissed from the force in February 2016 for gross misconduct, following a separate conviction for being drunk and disorderly at Lancaster Magistrates' Court in July 2015.

As part of his sentence, Wells-Burr will be placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely. The case was investigated by Hertfordshire Constabulary, with the prosecuting authority being HM Courts & Tribunals Service. This incident has drawn attention to the vulnerabilities within law enforcement, as reported by the BBC on 26 March 2018.