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Couple sent more than 6,000 texts and spent weekend away in Blackpool
RESPECTED probation officer Victoria Sellar has been jailed after she had a sexual relationship with an offender she managed.
The 30-year-old abused her position after qualifying as a probation officer in 2018 by forming a sexual relationship with the man following his release from the Harplands Hospital.
The couple sent more than 6,000 texts to each other during their four-month relationship and spent a weekend away in Blackpool where he became involved in violence. But Sellar failed to report the incident as a breach of his licence conditions.
And she accessed the probation service’s computer system to find details of another offender who had allegedly assaulted her boyfriend.
Now Sellar has been jailed for 10 months at Stoke-on-trent Crown Court as Judge David Fletcher said a deterrent message had to be sent out.
Prosecutor Daniel Osborne said Sellar joined the probation service aged 18 and worked as a mentor. She achieved two degrees and worked her way up the career ladder to land her dream job as a probation officer in early 2018.
But between February 5 and June
20 of that year she engaged in an ‘inappropriate and sexual relationship’ with a vulnerable offender she had managed. The relationship was discovered when the man was arrested on suspicion of an aggravated burglary in July 2018 and his phone was seized.
Mr Osborne said: “Personal communications were found between the man and the defendant. More than 6,000 texts were sent between the two between February and June 2018. They showed a personal and sexual relationship between the two.
“A number of messages and pictures were indecent. They had an ongoing sexual relationship.”
Mr Osborne said: “The man was vulnerable. She played a big part in getting him assessed and sectioned. They met up and had sex for the first time immediately after his discharge from the Harplands Hospital.
“She had managed someone who had previously assaulted him and she took a screenshot of his profile and sent it to him. She and the man went to Blackpool together. He got drunk and got in a fight. No caution was made against him. But at the time he was under probation due to his previous history of violence.
“He was living with a girl with a young child. He was and still is a high risk offender. She told him to make sure probation did not find out.
“She failed to act and neglected her duties as a probation officer and encouraged him to lie and mislead his own probation supervisor.”
Mr Osborne added: “The defendant admitted having a relationship with the man and having sex with him on about three separate occasions.
“She admitted accessing systems relating to the man on 18 occasions.
“She admitted sending a naked photograph of herself to him and researching another offender who had beaten him up.”
Sellar, of Trevone Avenue, Stapleford, Nottinghamshire was arrested on October 26, 2018 and made full admissions. She pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office between February 5, 2018 and June 20, 2018.
Darron Whitehead, mitigating, read out a letter Sellar wrote to the court. It stated: “I come here today to face the consequences of my actions, actions that were selfish, reckless and unprofessional. I have lost a career I worked so hard for and have no chance of ever rebuilding.
“Aside from this, the consequence I find the hardest to cope with is the embarrassment I have brought upon my family. They are so deeply ashamed by my behaviour. I can only hope they can begin to forgive me. I deeply regret my behaviour.”
Mr Whitehead said Sellar’s husband had a gambling addiction and the household debt was close to £50,000.
He said: “She could not get him to look in the mirror at what was going on and how it was impacting on her. Sadly she failed to look in the mirror herself because she would have realised her decision making was being affected also.
“She offers none of this as an excuse for what she has done but her personal life trespassed into her professional life. She crossed the professional line.”
He said Sellar lost her job with the probation service but has gained employment with a housing association. She is now divorced.
He conceded his client would receive a custodial sentence but urged Judge Fletcher to suspend the term.
But Judge Fletcher said, in his view, the appropriate punishment could only be met by sending her to jail. He said: “A deterrent message has to be sent out.
“The public have to have absolute and complete confidence in a system which deals in part with people who have been involved in the criminal justice system.”