Boyle was sentenced to 16 years after a trial at Cambridge Crown Court (Picture: PA)

A former police officer turned criminal defence barrister has been jailed for the rape and indecent assault of an underage girl more than 30 years ago.  

James Boyle, now 69, told his teenage victim: ‘I know this is wrong but I just can’t help myself’.  

Boyle was a serving police officer for Cambridgeshire Constabulary when he abused the girl between 1986 and 1991.  

He left her suffering nightmares with ‘images and memories invading her dreams’, the court heard.  

Boyle was practising as a lawyer when he was arrested, after a report was made to police in 2018, Cambridge Crown Court heard.  

Sentencing him to 16 years in prison, Judge Philip Grey said Boyle had been ‘living a lie’ because none of his professional achievements would have been recognised had he not ‘evaded responsibility for such serious offending’.  

He denied two counts of rape – one when the victim was under 16 – and one count of indecent assault, forcing her to give evidence at a trial, which she described as ‘extremely distressing and harrowing’.  

The victim was cross-examined for three days ‘on your your instructions’, Judge Grey told Boyle.  

‘You showed her no mercy then, just as you had her at your mercy as a child,’ he said.  

The judge also praised the victim’s ‘courage and perseverance’ in giving evidence telling the court she deserved ‘enormous credit’.  

Boyle’s barrister, Stephen Kamlish KC said he is ‘broken’ as a result of being incarcerated.  

He has health issues including diabetes, hypertension and gout and has lost a ‘significant’ amount of weight since being caged.   

As a former police officer convicted of sex offences, Boyle’s sentence would be a ‘hard sentence to serve’, the judge conceded.  

But he added: ‘This has been brought about by you’.  

Boyle, of Sunbury Place, Edinburgh, was also ordered to pay £4,500 in prosecution costs and must sign the sex offenders’ register.  

He is the latest in a string of police officers convicted of serious offences.  

Former Met Police officer Adam Provan was found guilty of raping a colleague multiple times and attacking a 16-year-old girl last Tuesday.  

More than a dozen officers from the force have been convicted of serious crimes since the murder of Sarah Everard – who died at the hands of serving officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021 – with the majority committing sex crimes against women.   

The defendant, who was jailed for 16 years, told his teenage victim: ‘I know this is wrong but I just can’t help myself’.