Former police officer Troy Cridland has been found guilty of sexual intercourse with a child between the ages of 14 and 16 years.
Cridland was 28 and employed as a police officer in a village in the Northern Rivers in 2020 at the time of the offences.
The case was heard at Lismore Court.
Cridland was refused bail and taken into custody after the jury found he had engaged in sexual activity with the girl several times while she was under his authority as a police officer.
The jury found he had used the girl to produce child abuse material and had attempted to cover up his crimes using a fake Tinder account and trying to persuade the girl to lie.
Cridland is to be sentenced this month for aggravated sexual intercourse with a child aged 14–16 years, producing child abuse material and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The girl cannot be named for legal reasons.
The court was told that the girl’s family was concerned about her being bullied at school. So they spoke with police officer Cridland about this.
The officer then took advantage of the girl’s vulnerability.
Because Cridland was in uniform and used the police car for encounters with the teen, she was legally ‘under his authority’ and the sex was therefore ‘aggravated’.
Former police officer Cridland has sentence date set for December
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