'Vile sexual predator' who coached children's football in Surrey found guilty of 40 counts of historic sexual abuse
His crimes spanned 50 years
A Surrey football coach and former Met Police officer has been found guilty of 40 sexual assault charges spanning 50 years.
The crimes of 68-year-old Stephen Henry Walker formerly of Chipstead Lane, Lower Kingswood, Tadworth happened between the late 1960s and 2007 and involved 15 victims both boys and girls.
He was found guilty of 33 counts of sexual assault following the first trial which started on 4 January and lasted over seven weeks.
The jury came back with a unanimous verdict after deliberating for just three hours.
The jury also returned a unanimous guilty verdict today on a further seven counts of sexual assault following the second trial which started on 8 March.
Walker will be sentenced on 24 May.
An investigation into Walker’s offending was launched after one of the victims came forward in March 2018.
The offences included sexual assaults, gross indecency with children and inciting a child to commit an act of gross indecency,
Walker, who worked as a salesman and briefly worked as a police officer with the Metropolitan Police was also a coach for a number of children’s football teams, where he met some of the victims, while others were children he knew through family friends.
The majority of the offences were committed in Surrey but Walker also abused children outside of the UK including in France and in Malta where he fled under an alias when his crimes were discovered.
He returned to the UK in October 2019 and was subsequently arrested on suspicion of child sex offences.
Detective Inspector Paddy Mayers from the Complex Abuse Unit, said:
“Walker was a vile sexual predator who used his position as a football coach, trusted member of the community and friend, to gain access to children and then seriously abuse them for his own gratification.
"The scale of his offending, which went unchallenged for years, cannot be underestimated.
“I would like to pay tribute to all the victims and witnesses involved in this case who were brave enough to come forward and give evidence, which meant re-living the ordeal they had endured as a result of the abuse Walker inflicted upon them.
"I would also like to thank them for their continued patience and support that resulted in the trial being delayed due to covid. I hope that the fact that he has been found guilty will give them some sense of justice after all these years of having to live with what he did to them.”
“I hope that Walker’s conviction sends a clear message that we will always do everything we can to ensure allegations of sexual abuse are investigated thoroughly and that we will leave no stone unturned to get to the truth.”