A trans Metropolitan Police special constable who raped and sexually assaulted a young girl while also working at a prestigious boarding school has been jailed for 24 years.
Remorseless James Bubb groomed his 12-year-old victim online before raping her after they met for the first time at a Christian festival.
The young girl later told police the now-former volunteer officer would threaten her into silence by talking about ‘the powers he had’ with the Met – a line the predator repeated to control a subsequent victim.
The paedophile – who now identifies as a woman named Gwyn Samuels – was found guilty of raping a child under 13, sexual activity with a child, assault of a child under 13 by penetration, and assault by penetration, all relating to the same complainant, following a trial last year.
Jurors also convicted the fiend of raping a woman after posing as a 16-year-old girl.
The defendant was referred to using male pronouns throughout the trial because the offences pre-dated their transition, however the Mail understands Samuels will be sent to a male prison in line with government policy.
Sentencing Samuels at Aylesbury Crown Court today, and using feminine pronouns, His Honour Judge Jonathan Cooper described the sexual predator as demonstrating ‘inherent brutality’.
The judge said Samuels, who wore her long ginger hair in a pony tail, will serve a minimum of 16 years before being considered for parole, with a further eight years on licence meaning she can be recalled to prison.
A paedophile police officers who now identifies as a woman called Gwyn Samuels, was found guilty of several sexual offences, including rapes, on two victims including a 12-year-old girl
Her victims said Samuels was a ‘highly manipulative, narcissistic, grandiose and extremely dangerous individual’.
The first victim told the court: ‘I vividly remember being 12, already traumatised, already feeling that there was no real way out.
‘No child should ever be made to feel that way, let alone by a police officer, an adult, a trusted person.’
She added: ‘I would not have complex PTSD if James had chosen to be anything but a prolific abuser.’
She said the defendant would ‘frequently bring up’ their police officer role as a way to control her and ‘why he had the right to induce fear over me and to overstep my boundaries’.
The woman, who is now 20 years-old, said she ‘can barely trust anybody any more’ but that: ‘I am determined to keep fighting and feel I have support now.’
The second victim told the court that Samuels had taken advantage of a ‘vulnerable 18-year-old’.
She became pregnant but lost the baby, telling the court: ‘I was glad that I miscarried so that this monster would not have any power over me or my child.’
Samuels told her that she was ‘unlovable and no-one would want me’, the woman recalled.
Samuels was jailed at Aylesbury Crown Court today
The judge said he noted the paedophile’s total absense of remorse’, with Samuels considering themselves the ‘victim’ of false allegations.
Addressing Samuels, the judge said: ‘You abused the most intimate trust of each of your victims.
‘In each case you systematically groomed your victim, first to befriend them, then to abuse them, finally to bend them to your will.
‘This was a campaign of abuse against each that was intended to break their will entirely.’
And he praised the victims for having the courage to stick with the case, despite delays and concerns ‘the power’ lay with the defendant.
He said: ‘The power of your evidence was heard and recognised.’
The offences took place between 1 January 2018 and 2 April 2024, during which time Samuels, then known as Bubb, was a member of support staff at the prestigious Harrow School, whose alumni include Sir Winston Churchill and six other British Prime Ministers.
Samuels began to volunteer with the Met Police Central West team as a special constable in September 2020 and the force said they were suspended immediately after their arrest by Thames Valley Police (TVP) on 30 April 2024.
They were dismissed without notice on September 26 last year following their conviction and placed on the College of Policing barred list.
The court heard the predator enountered their first victim on the chat roulette site Omegle in 2018 before meeting in person at a Christian festival a few months later.
The predator, who only transitioned after the offences, previously worked at Harrow School and was a special constable with the Metropolitan Police
The volunteer officer sexually assaulted the girl in public shortly before her 13th birthday – he was in his early 20s at the time.
Jurors were told Samuels was violent towards the girl when they raped and sexually abused her in her early teens, with the victim telling police Samuels choked and punched her.
The girl said the defendant looked ‘paranoid’ when they were with her, and she was being ‘hidden’ when they were in public together.
The court also heard Samuels raped a second victim, a woman they met when she had just turned 18, between January 2018 and February 2023.
The victim said Samuels would ‘use police training techniques’ on her, telling police: ‘The control, the power he got. It sure as hell wasn’t consensual.’
Jurors reached verdicts in August last year after deliberating for six hours and 32 minutes.
Samuels was also found not guilty of one count of rape and one count of sexual activity with a child.
TVP Detective Sergeant Catriona Cameron said the 27-year-old’s actions were ‘absolutely’ a breach of trust, and suggested Samuels may have more victims.
She said: ‘The investigation we led hasn’t identified the defendant used his position to identify and meet victims, but there was an element that he used the fact that they are a special constable in order to intimidate and they have used officer safety techniques and restraint on the victims as part of their offending.’
Asked how much of a breach of trust Samuels’ actions were, Ms Cameron said: ‘Anybody as a police officer, in that position of trust, we get taught these things and we should only be using them as appropriate.’
Ms Cameron said Samuels ‘identified a vulnerable child to start off with, groomed them’.
She said: ‘They then used fear, intimidation, violence and weapons to abuse the child going forward over a number of years, so very dangerous and very predatory in his offending.’
She said that while safeguarding measures on some online platforms had improved and new legislation had enhanced the protection of children, areas of vulnerability ‘absolutely’ remained.
Samuels, of High Street, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, previously worked as a technician on productions at Harrow School, although police said there was nothing to suggest they offended there.
In a statement, Harrow School said: ‘The defendant was employed as a member of the school’s support staff between 2018 and April 2024.
‘As soon as we were alerted by the authorities that this employee was subject to an investigation and had not disclosed their arrest to us, we terminated their contract.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our pupils is always our highest priority.’
After the verdict, a spokesperson for the NSPCC child protection charity said: ‘As a special constable, Bubb should have been someone who could be relied on to keep children safe.
‘It is now vital that both the victims in this disturbing case receive all the support they need to move forwards with their lives.
‘Bubb’s actions also highlight once again how tech companies need to be doing much more to make their platforms safe spaces for children and young people when they go online.’
