A FORMER top policeman has appeared in court charged with 35 sex offences.
Retired Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Philip Gaisford, 64, was originally charged with 21 offences – alleged to have been committed in Caterham and Crowborough, East Sussex, – when he made his first court appearance in August.
But the number had risen to 35 when he appeared at Lewes Crown Court on December 7.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges, and was remanded in custody pending trial on April 8.
Gaisford – described by police as an educational instructor – has run his own scuba diving business since 1999.
The initial charges, for offences alleged to have occurred between 1996 and 2007, included seven counts of indecent assault on a boy under 16, one of the rape of a woman and two of indecent assault on a 16-year-old boy, all in Caterham.
He was also accused of indecent assault, gross indecency, incitement to commit an act of gross indecency, penetrative and non-penetrative sexual activity, and rape – all against a 15-year-old boy in Crowborough – and intending to pervert the course of justice in June this year
The 14 new charges, for offences alleged to have taken place in Sussex between 2006 and 2008, included sexual assault on a 13-year-old boy and a boy aged between 13 and 15, sexual assault and attempted sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl, and ten charges of possessing indecent videos of children.
The charges follow an investigation by detectives in Sussex.
Gaisford, of Old Lane in Crowborough, served with the Metropolitan Police for more than 20 years.
