Ex-police detective Jeffrey Davies jailed for rapes

A former South Wales Police detective has been jailed for 18 years after he was found guilty of raping two women.

Jeffrey Davies, 45, of Aberdare, was serving in the Rhondda Valley when he raped his victims in 2002 and 2003.

Cardiff Crown Court heard he was dismissed from the force in 2013 after being convicted of other sexual assaults.

IPCC Commissioner for Wales, Jan Williams, has said Davies was a "sex offender hiding within the police".

The court heard Davies targeted vulnerable women, telling one of his victims the rape "would make her feel better" as he attacked her on the Bwlch mountain in Rhondda Cynon Taff in 2002.

He had met her through his work with South Wales Police and she had believed he was taking her to a police station before he drove to the dark mountain, the court was told.

He raped the second woman a year later in her own home.

Prosecutor Susan Ferrier said both women suffered in silence for more than a decade amid fears they would not be believed.

However, the pair decided to come forward after reading news reports that married father-of-two Davies had been jailed in 2013 following separate sex attacks on other women.

His Honour Judge Jonathan Furness QC told Davies he had not shown "a shred of remorse" and believed he was "untouchable".

Davies will serve half of his sentence before being released on license. He was also banned from working with children.

The former detective was found guilty of the rapes last month after an investigation by his former force, managed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Speaking after his conviction, IPCC Commissioner for Wales Ms Williams said Davies "committed fundamental breaches of the trust placed in him as a serving officer".

Ch Supt Dorian Lloyd, head of South Wales Police professional standards department, added: "Jeffrey Davies occupied a position of great trust within the community he served, but he betrayed that trust with his criminal behaviour."