A police officer who took his own life in May was a rapist who attacked at least nine women over 14 years.
PC Alan Greer’s offending came to light when his first known victim, a woman he raped in her home in Glasgow in 2012 after she had called the police to report being the victim of a crime, reported the attack late last year.
Her disclosure sparked one of Police Scotland’s biggest anti-corruption inquiries, which so far has uncovered a further eight victims, five of whom were sex workers, whom Greer attacked while off duty.
A BBC Disclosure investigation has revealed that Greer used hundreds of sex workers throughout his police career, and it is anticipated more victims of his violence will be identified.
A source close to the investigation told the BBC the case resembled that of a Met Police officer who was jailed for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in London five years ago, after missed opportunities to catch his offending. They said: “It feels a bit like this could be Police Scotland’s Wayne Couzens moment.”
Assistant chief constable Lynn Ratcliff, gold commander for the investigation, confirmed that the inquiry had found “truly shocking” evidence.
She said: “This officer has clearly abused his power and has revisited someone that he’s encountered in the course of his duties. But this victim was brave enough to come and speak to us, and that really was the trigger point for us starting our investigation.”
Greer, who was born in Australia in 1978, joined Strathclyde police in 2009 and had 17 years of apparently unblemished service. When he died in May he was 47, with a wife and child.
Greer’s family and colleagues are understood to have been oblivious to his violent double life. Senior officers insisted there were no opportunities to spot his offending sooner.
After the woman reported the sex attack that happened in 2012, the case was handed to the anti-corruption unit (ACU), which was able to identify the call she’d made in 2012 and the officers who had attended.
They found that, in the weeks after attack, PC Greer had repeatedly monitored the woman’s crime file on the police computer for updates.
Anti-corruption detectives obtained his mobile phone number, which was then put through police intelligence databases, revealing a single piece of intelligence dating back to 2018, linked to that number, but with no name attached.
The intelligence was from a Glasgow sex worker and indicated that the owner of that phone number was a customer who had been violent.
This gave detectives grounds to monitor every keystroke that Greer had made on police computers, where they discovered that Greer had been searching the police system for traces of a complaint from a phone number belonging to a Glasgow sex worker.
A sheriff authorised a warrant to search his home and seize his devices, where officers found thousands of graphic videos and images, revealing that Greer had used hundreds of sex workers throughout his police career.
Officers are not yet even halfway through the files, but have already identified five sex workers who were seriously sexually assaulted and two female police officers Greer had taken inappropriate photographs of while they were training.
If Greer were alive, it is understood police would have sought charges of attempted murder in some of the cases due to the level of violence.
As Greer’s serial offending was emerging, social work officers, accompanied by local police, visited his home on 5 May to ensure his family were not in danger. Greer died by suicide the following day.
ACC Ratcliff said that no red flags were missed, but added that Greer would not pass vetting checks today.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
