Former Police Scotland officer Cameron Ross, 39, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of violent and non-recent sexual offences against women, including raping two women and abusing a third. The offences took place in the Inverness and Western Isles, Scotland. Ross was sentenced on Thursday, 2 July 2026 at the High Court, having been found guilty on Monday, 25 May. He resigned from Police Scotland in June 2026 and has been placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
Abuse of trust over a decade
Faye Cook, Procurator Fiscal for High Court Sexual Offences at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: Cameron Ross carried out deliberate and repeated acts of abuse against women over the course of a decade. This was sustained offending, which caused significant harm. As a police officer, he was in a position of trust. Instead of upholding the law, he chose to break it in a serious and persistent way.
Cook urged other victims to come forward, stating: I would urge anyone affected by similar offending to come forward and report it. The Crown is committed to prosecuting those responsible for sexual and domestic abuse, regardless of who they are.
Police response and misconduct proceedings
Chief Superintendent Helen Harrison, Head of Professional Standards, said: Ross was a serving officer at the time of these offences and when the report was received in June 2022, we immediately suspended him. He has since resigned from the service. If he had remained, we would have progressed gross misconduct proceedings and he would have been dismissed as his actions and behaviour will not be tolerated in Police Scotland.
She thanked those who came forward and acknowledged the difficulty when the perpetrator is a police officer.
Ongoing reforms and survivor support
Harrison added: Police Scotland continues to work with survivors’ groups to improve our response to violence against women and girls to embed an approach which places survivors at the heart of our investigation with a trauma-informed approach and we remain committed to further improvement. Equally, over a period of years, and advanced by Lady Elish Angiolini's review in 2020, there has been a Scotland wide focus on police ethics, conduct and scrutiny.
She said police continue to engage with developments to strengthen safeguarding of policing integrity and are working to embed new legislation.
New legislation to strengthen oversight
Harrison concluded: We fully accept the onus is on policing to build confidence with members of the public, victims and witnesses to ensure they can report wrongdoing by police officers and staff, and can be confident that robust action will be taken. Police Scotland is committed to reviewing its processes, policies, and procedures, which continue to evolve and are shaped by feedback. The ability to handle police misconduct matters in a more robust, timely and transparent way will now also be greatly strengthened by the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Act 2025.
