Paedophile Met special constable who now identifies as a woman is branded a ‘monster’ in court by rape victims including girl he began grooming when she was 12

A pedophile Metropolitan Police officer ‘served nothing but evil behind closed doors’, a woman who was just 12 when he groomed her told a court on Friday.

James Bubb, 28, who identified himself as a woman called Gwyn Samuels, groomed the woman online before sexually assaulting her while she was still a teenager.

Bubb was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a child following a trial last summer.

The defendant was also found guilty of raping a woman he met online while posing as a 16-year-old girl.

In her victim impact statement, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Bubb was an ‘extremely manipulative, narcissistic, flamboyant and extremely dangerous individual’ who ‘groomed’ her.

The woman spoke in a strong voice that sometimes broke as Bubb sat silently at Aylesbury Crown Court.

He told Bubb: ‘When the Metropolitan Police recruited you as a special constable you swore you would protect the public and give everything you had to carry out their duty to protect the most vulnerable people.

‘But before you went to the police station and put on your uniform, you would be sure you would have had your fill of perversions, attempts at power, disease and brutal abuse.

‘I remember you telling me that you have to make a mental distinction between who you are at home and who you are when you put on your uniform. I thought you were honorable for that.

‘Now I understand what you are trying to tell me. ‘The same man who served the people served nothing but evil behind closed doors.’

The offenses occurred between January 1, 2018 and April 2, 2024; During this period Bubb was a member of the support staff of the prestigious Harrow School, whose alumni included Sir Winston Churchill and six other British Prime Ministers.

Bubb began volunteering as a special constable with the Met Police Central West team in September 2020 and was suspended immediately following his arrest by Thames Valley Police (TVP) on April 30, 2024, police said.

Following his conviction, he was dismissed without notice on September 26 last year and placed on the Police College’s banned list.

The court heard Bubb met his first victim on chat roulette site Omegle in 2018 and met him in person at a Christian festival a few months later.

The volunteer police officer sexually assaulted the girl in public shortly before her 13th birthday and was forced to pull up her trousers after a dog walker passed her.

Jurors were told Bubb was violent when he raped and sexually assaulted the girl as a teenager, with the victim telling police he choked and punched her.

The girl said the defendant seemed ‘paranoid’ when he was with her and ‘hidden’ when they were in public together.

He told the court on Friday: ‘I vividly remember being 12, already traumatised, already feeling like there was no real way out.

‘No child should ever be made to feel this way by an adult, a trusted person, let alone a police officer.’

Bubb was jailed at Aylesbury Crown Court today

She added: ‘If James had chosen to be anything other than a prolific abuser, I would not have complex PTSD.’

The woman said the defendant ‘often brought up’ his role as a police officer as a way of controlling her and ‘why he had the right to create fear in me and exceed my boundaries’.

The woman, now 20, said: ‘I can’t trust anyone anymore’ but ‘I’m determined to fight and I feel like I have support now.’

He suffers from complex PTSD and is unable to work, he went to university but was unable to concentrate.

Even after Samuels was arrested, the woman said she felt ‘traumatically connected to James’.

He said he slept in one of his blue hoodies for two weeks after his arrest.

The court also heard Bubb raped his second victim, whom he met when she had just turned 18, between January 2018 and February 2023.

The victim said Bubb would ‘use police training techniques’ on him and told police: ‘The control is the power he has. ‘It was definitely not consensual.’

Speaking from behind the scenes, the second victim told the court Samuels took advantage of a ‘vulnerable’ 18-year-old boy.

She became pregnant but lost the baby, telling the court: ‘I was happy to have the miscarriage so that this monster would have no effect on me or my child.’

The woman recalled Samuels telling her she was “unlovable and no one would want me.”

She added that there were times when she tried to leave, but the defendant took the key or dragged her back if she wanted to go out, eventually leaving her feeling that it was better to stay.

The woman said Samuels also threatened her with 999 calls and stripping.

Jurors reached the verdict in August last year after deliberating for six hours and 32 minutes.

TVP Detective Sergeant Catriona Cameron said the 27-year-old’s actions were ‘absolutely’ a breach of trust and suggested Bubb may have had more victims.

He said: ‘Our investigation did not establish that the defendant used his position to identify and meet the victims, but there was an element of him using the fact that they were special constables to intimidate and that they used officer security techniques and restraint on the victims as part of their offending.’

Asked how Bubb’s actions were a breach of trust, Ms Cameron said: ‘Absolutely, I mean, as a police officer, anyone who is in that position of trust, we are taught these things and we should only use them appropriately.’

Ms Cameron said Bubb ‘initially identified a vulnerable child and groomed them’.

Bubb previously worked at Harrow School and was a special constable with the Metropolitan Police.

He said: ‘They then used fear, intimidation, violence and weapons to abuse the child over several years; This was so dangerous and so destructive in his crimes.’

He said safeguards on some online platforms had improved and new legislation had improved the protection of children, but sensitive areas ‘definitely’ remained.

Bubb, of High Street, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, had previously worked as a technician on productions at Harrow School, but police said there was nothing to suggest he was disturbed there.

In a statement, Harrow School said: ‘We are aware that a former member of the school’s support staff was convicted of sexual offenses in August last year. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families at this time.

‘The safety and welfare of our students is always our top priority. Mr Bubb, now known as Gwyn Samuels, was employed as a member of the School’s support staff between 2018 and April 2024.

‘We terminated this employee’s contract as soon as we were alerted by the authorities that he was subject to investigation and did not disclose to us his arrest.

‘Having made appropriate internal investigations and liaised fully with the police and the Local Authority Appointed Officer, we have no reason to believe that they have committed any misconduct against students or colleagues at the School.’

Following the verdict, a spokesman for child protection charity NSPCC said: ‘As a special constable, Bubb had to be someone who could be trusted to keep children safe.

‘It is now vital that both victims in this disturbing case receive all the support they need to move forward with their lives.

‘Bubb’s actions also highlight again how tech companies need to do more to make their platforms safe spaces for children and young people when they go online.’

The defendant is expected to be sentenced in the same court next Friday.