A serving Merseyside Police constable has been jailed for 11 years for raping a woman during an 80-minute ordeal in a hotel room in 2023. Ryan Theaker, 30, of Netherton, Merseyside, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after being convicted of one count of rape, one count of sexual assault and one count of assault by penetration.
The victim, who was known to the defendant, secretly recorded the events on her mobile phone, and the audio was later played as “harrowing” evidence to jurors. The court heard Theaker had since accepted he committed the sexual offences, although his recollection was “limited” because of his intoxication by alcohol.
Victim’s impact statement
At sentencing on Thursday, the victim told the court: “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.”
She added: “He didn’t deserve to be in the police. He didn’t deserve his nice house. He didn’t deserve his nice new car. I always thought when I was younger that monsters were big horrible nasty creatures who weren’t even real. I remember reading a post that said, ‘even Scooby-Doo taught us the real monsters were always the people’. That is exactly what he is. A monster. The monster never wins.”
Judge’s remarks and sentence
Judge Brian Cummings KC told Theaker he was in “large measure” responsible for the woman’s suicide attempt in 2024 and said he had inflicted “severe psychological harm”. He imposed an extended licence period of five years and ruled the defendant must serve at least two-thirds of his sentence in custody before he could be considered for release by the Parole Board.
The victim said: “It is true his actions will always impact my life. I’ll always be physically and emotionally damaged. He wasn’t successful in fully breaking me. Of course, I have to rebuild pieces that he did manage to break but those pieces are so much stronger than before. I am not afraid.”
Defence and police response
Jenny Tallentyre, defending, said: “He has begun to reflect on the impact of his behaviour on her. He has talked about his own shame and embarrassment. He has acknowledged his behaviour on the night was unacceptable.”
Theaker was described as an “excellent police officer” who received a commendation in 2020 and was nominated for a bravery award last year. He resigned from the force in August 2025 ahead of a misconduct hearing into his sharing of two videos in a WhatsApp group in 2021 that were “ableist in nature”, said Merseyside Police. Those videos were unrelated to the rape investigation and emerged after his mobile phone was seized for examination. The matter was found proven at the level of gross misconduct, and it was determined he would have been dismissed if he had still been serving.
Following sentencing, Assistant Chief Constable Karen Jaundrill said: “The behaviour for which Theaker has been convicted and sentenced has no place in society, and certainly not within policing. I want to be clear that his contemptible behaviour is in no way representative of the attitude or behaviour of officers and staff at Merseyside Police. Theaker’s former colleagues, and the force, have all been left shocked and disgusted by his actions and the long-term impact they have had on his victim. Clearly we now know this man was not fit to be a police officer, and it is right that he is no longer part of the force.”
