By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim
New South Wales police detective Glen Coleman, who was attached to the sex crimes and child abuse squad, was on temporary assignment at Windsor police station on 17 February 2022, when he commenced inquiries into a case involving a 19-year-old woman, whose cousin was threatening to post intimate photos she’d provided him with in exchange for cash, on the internet.
At the time, the young woman was a university student, working three jobs, including as a striptease dancer, and she was also receiving government assistance.
Coleman, who was 55 years old at the time, asked to see the photos, but the young woman didn’t show him. The police officer then told the woman her cousin’s behaviour was immoral, but it did not constitute a criminal offence, so the 19-year-old then asked the detective to investigate a sexual assault complaint against her ex-boyfriend John.
A number of meetings and exchanges between Coleman and the victim over March to May 2022, culminated in the NSW police detective being charged with ten criminal offences, nine of which were sex crimes, and he stood before a jury in respect of these charges during multiple hearings over May to November last year.
The offending
During a 31 March 2022 interview regarding the sexual assault complaint against the woman’s ex-boyfriend, Coleman asked her about her weekend, and she said she’d attended a job interview for a Sydney CBD strip club, and she later offered him a lap dance for $200 if he attended the venue via a text message.
The detective then arrived at the club on the evening of 5 April 2022, but on texting the 19-year-old, he found she was not in attendance.
The senior constable and the teen then held a meeting in his police car on Windsor’s Kable Street two days later and some alleged sexual touching occurred.
This was followed by text and phone interactions between the pair, including in regard to negotiations for a price for sex. Another car meeting occurred at Colonial Reserve around 20 April, and the detective asked to see the teen’s breasts on this occasion, and after she lifted her top, he touched them.
The detective and the teenager again met at Windsor police station on 5 May 2022, and in an interview room, the pair engaged in brief fellatio and sexual intercourse and the detective paid her $70.
The offender then asked the teenager to show him her breasts, of which she did, and he lent in and sucked her right one briefly.
The detective continued messaging the woman following the meeting at the station. After receiving these texts, she became afraid and asked some of her acquaintances what she should do about the messages. And after she spoke to an off-duty police officer, that individual then raised a complaint with the NSW Police Professional Standards Command.
Coleman was subsequently arrested on 20 May 2022, after a search of his phone turned up evidence.
Guilty on three counts
A jury in the District Court of New South Wales convicted Coleman on three of ten charges against his name on 24 May 2024.
The first consisted of one count of misconduct in public office. This is a common law offence, which means it’s a type of crime that’s developed via the courts during criminal proceedings. And penalties for common law offences in NSW are “at large”, which means there is no maximum penalty, as the scope of any potential punishment is limitless.
The overall behaviour of detective Coleman in respect of the teenage woman comprised this offence, as it was found he’d breached the NSW Police Force Statement of Values and the NSW Police Force Code of Conduct and Ethics.
Coleman was too found guilty on two counts of sexual touching, contrary to section 61KC of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), which is an offence that carries up to 5 years imprisonment. And in Coleman’s case the behaviour it covered consisted of the touching of the 19-year-old’s breasts.
The seriousness of offending
For the offence of misconduct in public office, NSW District Court Judge Robert Montgomery pointed to a recent UK court finding in respect of a police officer, which found that this crime has repercussions for an entire police force as such incidents attract widespread attention and overshadow stories of good police service, resulting in an overall lack of trust in police.
“The jury was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the offender wilfully abused the public trust reposed in him as a detective senior constable serving in the NSW Police Force,” his Honour explained, “when he used his position as the investigating officer of the victim’s complaints of sexual abuse and assault to pursue his own sexual gratification with her.”
This abuse of his position of power included using NSW police facilities in the form of a car and the police station. This behaviour comprised of a “seriously grave example of the offence of misconduct in public office”. And his Honour said he had to guard against double punishment in sentencing in respect of this charge, as the other two offences comprise part of this offending.
In terms of the sexual touching in the police car, Judge Montgomery explained that the negotiation of a future sexual transaction did not reduce the seriousness of the crime, which saw the victim asking to leave the vehicle and the officer then requesting to see her breasts and then touching them, and he found the objective seriousness of this crime to be in the middle range.
The second sexual touching crime, which occurred with the sucking of a breast in the police station interview room, was found to be of “slightly graver seriousness” because not only was there an “imbalance of authority” but sexual intercourse had occurred, although it was “not of criminal character”, and the detective did suck the young woman’s breast on this occasion.
Sentenced to time inside
The victim impact statement that was heard in court in September 2024, saw the young woman explain that she has a history of being taken advantage of and sexually assaulted. She said she went to the police for help and considered she could trust them. And she added that these events had taken a personal toll.
The court further heard that at the time of sentencing, Coleman was 58 years old, he’d been married for 35 years, and he had two children. He’d had a good upbringing, and he commenced working as a police officer in 2001.
The report also heard from practitioners in relation to Coleman’s mental state, as he put it to the court that due to previous ruby league injuries and long-term alcohol abuse, he was suffering frontal lobe brain dysfunction, which resulted in reduced self-control. The judge accepted he had reduced moral culpability, which mitigated the need for personal deterrence and punishment.
On 28 November 2024, Judge Montgomery sentenced Coleman to 3 years and 7 months imprisonment, with non-parole set at 2 years and 2 months. And his Honour further referred the offender to the Special Purpose Unit at Long Bay Prison.