RETIRED Hereford police officer Alan Saffery has been found guilty of sex offences against a girl aged 12 to 15 while he was serving in the county.

The 61-year-old, of Spinney Grove, Hampton Dene, Hereford, has this afternoon been jailed for 12 years after a jury at Worcester Crown Court reached its verdict this morning.

Saffery was cleared on two charges of raping a second girl aged under 16 in 1986.

The verdicts of guilty to six counts of indecently assaulting the first girl and two of having sex with her - covering the period from 1977 to 1981 - were by a majority of 11 to one.

Saffery was also convicted on two allegations of having child pornography images on his computer in 2013.

Judge Robert Juckes QC, jailing the former Hereford police constable, who had also served in West Mercia Police HQ in Worcester during his 30-year career, said he had helped the girl, now aged in her 40s, to become "infatuated" with him and groomed her so he could help himself to her whenever the opportunity arose for four years between 1977 and 1981.