Former police officer who abused his powers sentenced

A former South Wales Police Constable has been jailed for inappropriately communicating with and having sexual relationships with victims of crime.

Richard Helling, 49, abused his position with four female victims he met while working on their cases. Two of these were victims of domestic abuse.

Helling contacted the victims from his personal phone number and tried to engage them in flirtatious conversations.

After one victim sent over images of bruising injuries to her breast area to help with the police investigation, Helling contacted her 268 times within a four-week period. In one message he complimented her cleavage and included two clapping hands emojis.

Another domestic abuse victim told him she had been forced to get out of the bath to answer a welfare check to her home. Helling messaged back: “Pity it wasn’t me that got you out of the bath.” He then sent a GIF of Julia Roberts in the bath from a scene in Pretty Woman.

A victim whose trial had been delayed for seven weeks was told: “Going to have to wait even longer now to get naughty with you!”

Helling also conducted a sexual relationship with a victim which lasted some months. He later asked the victim to delete all contact between them, in a bid to cover up all evidence of their relationship and pervert the course of justice.

His offending took place between October 2020 and October 2022, and included accessing the police computer system without a lawful reason.

He was found out after a routine proactive audit of all South Wales Police issued mobile phones, which showed that Helling had given his personal phone number out to a victim of crime.

Today (Friday, 18 August 2023) he was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment at Swansea Crown Court. He had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of improper exercise of police powers and privileges, two counts of unauthorised access to computer material and one count of perverting the course of justice.

Ceri Evans, from the CPS, said: “Richard Helling exploited his position as a Police Constable and targeted female victims of crime for his own personal gratification. At first he would make them feel comfortable before revealing his true agenda.

“Some of these victims were in vulnerable situations and feared that if they did not respond to his romantic advances, their cases would suffer as a result. That is completely unacceptable and only serves to erode the public’s trust in police officers.

“The CPS is committed to prosecuting those who break the law regardless of who they are or what their profession is. I hope this conviction and sentence reassures the public and the victims in this case that nobody is above the law and that all offenders will be held accountable.”