Police officer found guilty of having sex with a 15-year-old girl multiple times – including on the station and in his police car
- Troy Robert Cridland appeared in court on Friday
- He turned out to have knowingly had sex with an underage girl
A former NSW police officer has been found guilty on several occasions of having sex with an underage girl despite knowing she was not old enough.
Troy Robert Cridland had sex with the 15-year-old girl several times between March and August 2020, when he was 28.
Cridland pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated sexual intercourse with a child aged between 14 and 16, but after a four-week trial, a jury at Lismore District Court in northern New South Wales rejected his claims.
He admitted having sex with the girl and cheating on his partner at the time, but denied knowing she was under 16 years old.
The jury delivered its verdict in less than two and a half hours, also finding Cridland guilty of using the girl to create child abuse material by asking her for nude photos, as well as attempting to pervert the course of justice. .
The former police officer was accused of having sex with her while under his authority, including at the police station and in a police car.
Former NSW police officer Troy Robert Cridland (above) has been found guilty of knowingly having sex with an underage girl while a police officer in 2020
Cridland said he first met the girl on Tinder in February 2020.
The court heard that the couple’s first time having sex was in a tent in the garage of the police station on Mother’s Day. The Daily Telegraph reported.
Cridland provided screenshots of a Tinder conversation he claimed to have had with the girl, in which he claimed she lied about her age.
However, the prosecution accused Cridland of using fake Tinder accounts to spark the conversation to clear his name.
“This is fake news. This [Tinder screenshots] are fake messages,” the prosecutor said ABC.
The prosecution also alleged that CCTV footage taken outside the police station showed Cridland, the girl and her mother going through her phone to find incriminating messages.
It was also alleged that he told the teen, “If they ask you if you were in a police car, say no.”
The jury heard that the girl’s family had expressed concern about her bullying at school with Cridland before he had a sexual encounter with the child.
Cridland wore a uniform and used a police vehicle during his encounters with the girl, which is why the court ruled that he had authority over her.
An officer working alongside Cridland at the time also confirmed that he was present at a conversation about the underage teen, which Cridland denied.
The prosecution found that the underage girl had told several lies during cross-examination, but said they were not “particularly clever,” especially when compared to Cridland’s “calculated trickery.”
Cridland was taken into custody and will be sentenced at a later date.
Cridland tried to claim he didn’t know the girl was underage when they had sex and said they met on Tinder where she claimed to be 16 (stock image)