BRITAIN: A police family liaison officer appointed to the family of Jessica Chapman during the Soham murder inquiry in Cambridgeshire has been charged with indecently assaulting a teenage girl, the force investigating him said yesterday.
West Midlands Police said Det Const Brian Stevens (41) will face two counts of indecently assaulting the 13-year-old when he appears in court again next month. The father of two, who serves with Cambridgeshire Police, has also been accused of three counts of making indecent images of children on top of the three similar offences he was charged with last month.
His colleague, Const Antony Goodridge (34), who was an exhibits officer during the investigation into the deaths of Jessica and Holly Wells, both 10, has also been charged with a further 12 counts of making indecent images of children, having already been accused of four similar offences.
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police, which carried out the investigation into both officers, said the fresh charges would be put to them when they appear before magistrates in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on November 11th.
The two officers were charged during prearranged appointments at an undisclosed Cambridgeshire police station following forensic examinations of their computers.
They were first arrested last month as part of a worldwide investigation into alleged Internet pornography. West Midlands Police conducted the investigation into Consts Stevens and Goodridge at the request of colleagues in Cambridgeshire and supervised by the Police Complaints Authority.
The two people charged in connection with the deaths of Holly and Jessica, Mr Ian Huntley and Ms Maxine Carr, were being questioned by detectives again last night.