BBC reveals police officer Alan Greer was serial rapist and attempted murderer

A former Police Scotland officer who died by suicide in May was a violent rapist who carried out attacks and attempted murders of women over at least 14 years, the BBC can reveal.

PC Alan Greer's first known victim was a woman he raped in her home in Glasgow in 2012 after she had called police to report a crime.

The woman reported the sex attack by Greer late last year, triggering one of Police Scotland's biggest anti-corruption inquiries.

Detectives have so far uncovered eight further victims, five of whom were sex workers attacked while Greer was off duty.

It has also emerged that Greer used hundreds of prostitutes throughout his police career, and more victims of his violence are expected to be identified.

Assistant Chief Constable Lynn Ratcliff, gold commander for the investigation, said the inquiry's findings were "truly shocking".

She said Greer had clearly abused his power and returned to someone he had encountered through his duties, adding that the victim's courage in coming forward was the trigger for the investigation.

Greer, who was born in Australia in 1978, moved to the UK when he was six. He joined Strathclyde Police in 2009 before it merged with Police Scotland in 2013, and he had 17 years of apparently unblemished service.

He later worked as a uniformed response officer in Glasgow before moving into officer safety training in Coatbridge around 2016, where he taught probationer officers and refreshed more experienced officers.

When he died in May, he was 47 and had a wife and child.

Greer's family and colleagues are understood to have been oblivious to his violent double life.

The case began at the end of last year when a woman in her late thirties walked into a Glasgow police station to report a crime.

She said that in 2012 she had tried to report a disturbance at her home and that uniformed officers attended. She said they took her statement and left, but one of the officers later returned alone, forced her into a sexual act and raped her.

After she disclosed the assault last year, the case was referred to the anti-corruption unit. By April, detectives had obtained a statement from her and identified the 2012 call and the officers who attended.

They later found that in the weeks after the attack, one officer repeatedly checked the woman's crime file on the police computer without a legitimate police reason, including once while on annual leave.

Fourteen years later, those computer searches helped identify Greer as the suspect.

Ratcliff said she was entirely satisfied that everything that could reasonably have been done at the time was done and that there were no missed opportunities.

The 2018 information gave detectives a second line of evidence and grounds to monitor every keystroke Greer made on police computers.

They then found that he had searched the police system for traces of a complaint from a phone number that detectives identified as belonging to a Glasgow sex worker.

That became the breakthrough, showing the suspect repeating the same pattern.

Detectives then secured a warrant to search Greer's home and seize his devices.

At dawn on 24 April, officers raided Greer's family home in what was described as a "day of executive action".

Greer appeared shocked to be arrested on suspicion of the 2012 rape.

Seven mobile phones and a laptop were seized, and he was taken to a police station for fingerprints and DNA sampling.

He was not interviewed, but he was suspended and released pending further inquiries.

Once officers began examining his phones, the scale of Greer's offending became clear.

Thousands of graphic videos and images were recovered, revealing that Greer had used hundreds of prostitutes throughout his police career.

Police are not yet halfway through the files, but have already identified five sex workers who were seriously sexually assaulted.

If Greer had been alive, police would have sought charges of attempted murder in some cases because of the level of violence used.

Three other victims have been identified, including two female police officers whom Greer had taken inappropriate photographs of while they were training.

As the serial offending emerged, detectives took steps to protect Greer's family and social work officers, accompanied by local police, visited his home on 5 May.

Greer died by suicide the following day.

ACC Ratcliff said comparisons with Wayne Couzens were unhelpful and that no red flags were missed.

She said there was no evidence at this stage of missed red flags, but the matter would remain under review because lessons had to be learned from inquiries of this kind.

She also said the vetting landscape in Police Scotland is markedly different from when Greer joined Strathclyde Police in 2009, and that Greer would not pass vetting checks today.

Thousands of recovered images still have to be sifted through, and police understand that Greer used multiple pseudonyms and phones to conduct his sexual transactions.

Specialist officers have been drafted in from other units, including the major incident team, to support the anti-corruption unit, and the inquiry is expected to take many months.

Police say Greer will never be brought to justice, but they are determined to establish the full picture of his offending.

ACC Ratcliff urged anyone who believes they may have been a victim of Alan Greer to come forward, saying police would listen, investigate and do their best to provide support.

Production/additional reporting: Kevin Anderson and Carla Basu

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