Met Police officer tied woman up and warned her ‘who are you going to tell, I’m the police’
Court hears that PC Sam Grigg was ‘obsessed with BDSM’ and attacked housemate for sexual gratification
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A Metropolitan Police officer who tied a woman up using duct tape and told her “who are you going to tell, I’m the police” has been jailed for four years.
PC Sam Grigg launched the “terrifying” attack on his female housemate while they were alone in their shared house in Twickenham on 2 December.
Prosecutor Alexander Agbamu told Kingston Crown Court the 36-year-old entered the kitchen while the woman was getting lunch, and “without warning or explanation began to tape her wrists together”.
“[The victim] kept asking the defendant ‘why are you doing this?’ and telling him all she wanted to do was have some food and return to her room,” the barrister added. “The defendant told her that he thought it was funny.”
Grigg began to apply “more force” and taped her ankles together, then taped her mouth as she continued to resist, the court heard.
After she was bound the doorbell rang and Grigg went to answer it, with his 23-year-old victim trying to crawl to the kitchen to find a knife to cut herself free.
Mr Agbamu said Grigg returned and “seemed to enjoy” watching her efforts to open drawers with her feet, “telling her she would never be able to set herself free”.
“After a while he told her he would take her bindings off if she asked him nicely,” the prosecutor added. “She pleaded with him to set her free.”
Grigg then used the knife to cut the woman’s bindings but cut her in the process, saying “oops”.
The court heard that after his victim said she would report him, he told her: “Who are you going to tell? I’m the police.”
Judge Lodder KC said Grigg “knew the likely effect” of the statement, over a year after the murder of Sarah Everard and months after the arrest of Met Police rapist David Carrick.
“It is likely that your threat caused her to lack confidence about going straight to the police,” he told him.
“I take account of the pleasure that you appeared to derive and your professional role as police officer, which you utilised in an attempt to prevent her from reporting what happened.”
The judge sentenced Grigg to four years in prison for false imprisonment and actual bodily harm, with a two-year extended licence when he is released, and imposed a restraining order banning future contact with his victim.
Judge Lodder KC found that Grigg carried out the attack for his own “sexual gratification” and that he had an “obsession with BDSM conduct”.
“It is correct that you did not rape or sexually assault [the victim], but … it was the knock on the door you that caused you to stop,” he added. “I find you to be dangerous.”
Grigg joined the Metropolitan Police in 2016 and was based at Mitcham police station in south-west London, previously receiving a commendation for pulling a man from a pond.
The court heard that he had no relationship with his victim other than their residence of the same shared house, which he already lived in when she had arrived six months before.
The woman told police that she thought Grigg was going to rape her, adding: “He’s always been such a nice guy. He’s a bit weird but he was very sweet so when it was happening I thought ‘surely not’.”
The court heard that she suffers from nightmares and flashbacks, struggles to eat and sleep and has self-harmed as a result of the attack.
She initially reported it to her landlady, and made an online report to the police on 6 December.
The court heard that there was a delay in it reaching Metropolitan Police detectives because the “system understood that she was trying to make a complaint against a police officer rather than reporting a crime”.
The victim said that since the attack, she “feels anxious when she sees police vehicle, walks past a police station or when a police officer passes close by”.
“It has caused her to mistrust the police and made her concerned about recruitment processes,” Mr Agbamu told the court.
Grigg has no previous convictions, but after seeing news of his prosecution a former partner came forward to tell police that Grigg had “an obsession” with BDSM and had used police handcuffs during sexual acts.
The woman said he had upset her by referring to attending “just another domestic” as a police officer, and that she believed “he got a kick out of arresting women as a form of restraint”. Grigg denied the claim and said he acted professionally.
Searches of his room found more rolls of duct tape, cable ties, rope and unauthorised pairs of police-issue handcuffs and batons.
Defence barrister John Howey told the court that Grigg described the attack “as a terrible mistake” and “accepts a sexual motive”.
“He cannot begin to explain why he chose to act as he did on that day,” he added. “[Grigg] says that if the doorbell had not wrong it would not have progressed … to rape or any other form of sexual assault.”
On 30 January, Grigg was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police after being found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour through his offending.
He has been added to a barred list meaning that he will not be able to work for police or associated bodies and watchdogs in future.
Commander Jon Savell, responsible for the Met's professional standards department, said: “This was a terrifying ordeal for the woman. Grigg's behaviour was appalling and I know it will cause concern among members of the public. He's let down the Met and his colleagues who are committed to protecting Londoners.
“We are determined to have a Met that the public can trust, with officers that people feel confident to approach.”
Grigg was sentenced as two to three officers from the Metropolitan Police appear in court every week.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted last month that there are more than “just a few bad apples” in the force and warned of more “ghastly” cases to come.