An inner-west detective has been recognised for his work investigating sexual offences.
Detective Senior Constable Ryan King from the Westgate Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) was last week named Sexual Offences Practitioner of The Year Award in a ceremony at police headquarters.
Detective Senior Constable Ryan won the award for his work on a child sexual exploitation investigation involving the rape of two teenage girls.
The two victims – now both aged 20 – were 14 and 15 years old at the time they were raped by the offender.
Detective Senior Constable Ryan went above and beyond to support the victims and built such a strong relationship with each of them, that they’ve since stated they wouldn’t have made a report otherwise.
“This case is one that has always stood out to me because of the nature of the horrific offences perpetrated by the offender against the victims, who were only 14 and 15 years old at the time,” Detective Senior Constable Ryan said after receiving the award.
“The victims in this matter were incredibly brave to speak out to get the offender before the courts and held to account.”
The offender was jailed for 22 years for raping the two girls, as well as false imprisonment, kidnapping, assault, reckless conduct, supplying drugs to a child and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Detective Senior Constable Melanie King, from the Westgate Family Violence Centre, was highly commended in the same category.
