Ryan Theaker
Introduction
Ryan Theaker is a former Merseyside Police constable who was jailed for eleven years, with a further five years on extended licence, for the rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration of a woman in a Liverpool hotel room in 2023 — an 80-minute attack that surfaced because his victim secretly recorded it on her phone. Theaker, 30, was a serving officer when he attacked the woman, who told him “get off me” more than 300 times during the recorded ordeal. Sentencing him at Liverpool Crown Court on 8 October 2026, Judge Brian Cummings KC designated Theaker a dangerous offender and said he was in “large measure” responsible for the woman’s suicide attempt in 2024.
Background Information
Theaker served as a constable with Merseyside Police and was off duty at the time of the attack. In August 2024, after the offences were reported, the force’s investigation into him for rape and sexual offences led to his phone being seized; officers found that on 4 February 2021 and again on 9 March 2021, while serving, he had circulated two videos in a WhatsApp group that were ableist in nature and unrelated to the sexual-offence investigation. He resigned from Merseyside Police the day before an accelerated misconduct hearing in August 2025 which found the video-sharing proven at gross-misconduct level — breaching the standards of professional behaviour for discreditable conduct, authority, respect and courtesy, and equality and diversity — determined he would have been dismissed had he still been serving, and added him to the College of Policing Barred List.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted after trial. Theaker was convicted by a jury of rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration after a trial; the sentences and findings below are court outcomes, not allegations.
Theaker was secretly recorded by the victim after a night out in 2023: the audio captured roughly 80 minutes in the hotel room during which he demanded she let him take naked pictures of her despite her saying she did not want him to, and assaulted her with sex toys he had brought to the hotel. The recordings, described as “harrowing” by sentencing judge Brian Cummings KC, captured her “crying throughout” and telling Theaker “get off me” more than 300 times. Outlining the crimes at sentencing, Cummings said Theaker “repeatedly told her get in the [expletive] bath which she refused to do, pushed her on the bed, removed her clothing and took photographs of her despite her repeatedly telling you she didn’t want you to”, and said he forced her to wear sexual restraints. At trial Theaker denied the offences, but after the jury convicted him his barrister Jenny Tallentire said he now accepted he was guilty of the sexual offences and was “ashamed” of his behaviour; she said he had been an “excellent” police officer who had received a commendation during his career. In a victim statement read at Liverpool Crown Court, the woman told him “monsters never win”, saying: “People like him have no place in society. I still struggle to understand how he was able to go into work, arrest someone for a crime that was less or the same as what he had done to me and still be proud to wear that uniform.”
Public Reaction and Consequences
Judge Brian Cummings KC imposed an extended sentence — eleven years in custody with a further five years on licence — requiring Theaker to serve at least two-thirds of the custodial term before he could be considered for release by the Parole Board, and told Theaker he was in “large measure” responsible for the woman’s suicide attempt in 2024, having inflicted “severe psychological harm”. Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Constable Karen Jaundrill said after sentencing: “The behaviour for which Theaker has been convicted and sentenced has no place in society, and certainly not within policing,” stressing that his “contemptible behaviour” was in no way representative of the attitude or behaviour of officers and staff at the force. Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell called the offences “a profound abuse of trust and authority”, saying “when that trust is betrayed, there can be no hiding place”. Merseyside Police confirmed that following the sexual-offence conviction, Theaker would also have been dismissed for gross misconduct had he still been serving; the earlier ableist-video case had already barred him from policing in August 2025.
Current Status
Theaker is serving an eleven-year custodial sentence with five years’ extended licence imposed at Liverpool Crown Court on 8 October 2026, and must serve at least two-thirds of the term before Parole Board consideration. He was barred from working in policing by the College of Policing in August 2025 over the WhatsApp videos, and the force said the rape conviction would have ended his employment in any event had he still been serving. No appeal against the conviction or sentence has been reported.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A police career the defence described as “excellent” — commended during his service — ended in a barred-list entry in 2025 and a dangerous-offender designation in 2026; Theaker will spend his thirties in prison and remain on extended licence into his forties. The case became one of the most widely reported police-misconduct stories of the year because of the recordings — the victim’s decision to document the attack supplied the evidence her word alone might never have survived a jury trial against a serving officer. Her statement to the court, about watching him arrest people for offences no worse than his own while wearing the uniform, is now part of the public record of how Merseyside and the courts handled an officer’s violence against a woman.