Met Police special constable found guilty of sex offences

A Metropolitan Police special constable has been found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a child.

James Bubb, who now identifies as a woman named Gwyn Samuels, groomed one of his two victims online before sexually assaulting her when she was just 12 years old.

The 27-year-old, from Chesham in Buckinghamshire, was also found guilty of raping a woman he met online while posing as a 16-year-old girl.

Amersham Law Courts was told the defendant, who still identified as male at the time of the alleged offences, would be referred to by biological sex throughout the trial.

Bubb began to volunteer with the Met Police Central West team as a special constable on 19 September 2020.

He was suspended from volunteer duties immediately after his arrest by Thames Valley Police on 30 April 2024.

The offences took place between 1 January 2018 and 2 April 2024.

The crown court trial was told that Bubb met his first victim on the online chat site Omegle in 2018 – before meeting in person for the first time at a Christian festival a few months later.

Prosecutors said Bubb was a volunteer steward and the victim was wearing a colour-coded child’s wristband that was clearly on show.

The officer sexually assaulted the girl in public shortly before her 13th birthday and was forced to pull his trousers up after a dog walker went past.

His victim also said Bubb spoke “a lot about the powers he had” in his role with the Met as a special constable.

Bubb was found guilty of one count of raping a child under 13, one count of sexual activity with a child, one count of assault of a child under 13 by penetration, and one count of assault by penetration – all relating to the same complainant.

He was found not guilty of one count of rape and one count of sexual activity with a child in relation to the same complainant.

Bubb was also found guilty of one count of rape against a second complainant.

The court heard the officer raped the woman, who he met when she had just turned 18, while he was in an on-off relationship with her between January 2018 and February 2023.

She said the defendant would “use police training techniques” on her, telling police: “The control, the power he got. It sure as hell wasn’t consensual.”

Judge Jonathan Cooper told jurors after the trial the case must have been “very challenging, I’m sure, for you as individuals”.

Jurors reached verdicts after deliberating for six hours and 32 minutes.

A spokesperson for the NSPCC child protection charity said Bubb should have been relied on to “keep children safe”.

“It is now vital that both the victims in this disturbing case receive all the support they need to move forwards with their lives,” they said.

“Bubb’s actions also highlight once again how tech companies need to be doing much more to make their platforms safe spaces for children and young people when they go online.”

After the verdicts, Det Sgt Catriona Cameron, of the Thames Valley Police child abuse investigation unit, said Bubb’s actions were “absolutely” a breach of trust.

“There was an element that he used the fact that they are a special constable in order to intimidate and they have used officer safety techniques and restraint on the victims as part of their offending,” said Det Sgt Cameron.

Bubb will be sentenced at a later date.