Policeman sentenced to five years for sexual attack on student, 17

A policeman was jailed for five years yesterday for sexually assaulting a student he dragged into bushes.

PC Paul Miller, 36, described as a "model" officer before the attack, assaulted the 17-year-old as she walked home in north London in February last year. A jury at the Old Bailey cleared the officer of attempted rape but found him guilty of sexual assault.

The girl was described as deeply traumatised and has had to move schools.

Miller, a member of the Metropolitan Police's territorial support group from St Albans, Hertfordshire, denied the offences, claiming the girl had offered him sex for £25.

The judge, Recorder Rosamund Horwood-Smart QC, told Miller during sentencing: "You, a policeman on whom any young girl would seek to rely, assaulted this girl and subjected her to a terrible ordeal which she had to relive."

Miller was placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely. His 14-year career in the police is now in ruins. The trial was the second after a jury in September was unable to agree a verdict.

The court was told Miller was off duty when the teenager was pushed into bushes near Hendon railway station. Neighbours heard her screams and telephoned police. Officers found Miller trying to leave a muddy area with his trousers undone. The partially clothed teenager was found behind the bushes.

Timothy Langdale QC, for the prosecution, told the jury that the student, who was staying with her sisters during half-term, had had a row with her eldest sister and had left a restaurant to walk home alone. She was nearly home when Miller grabbed her.

David Bate QC, defending, said the officer had an "exemplary record". Outside court, Detective Inspector Robert Stimpson, who led the investigation, said: "Today's trial should act as a stark warning that the Metropolitan Police will do everything in its power to catch and bring to justice those responsible for such crimes, whoever they may be."