Will Mellor teared up as he heard the testimony of a brave rape survivor who was duped into going out with a serving Met Police officer when she was 16.
Powerful emotions are triggered for Will Mellor when he talks about his latest role presenting the second series of the documentary series Cops Gone Bad, reports the Mirror. Particularly chilling for him is the episode focusing on Adam Provan, a serving Metropolitan Police officer who raped a 16-year-old girl after lying to her father about his age.
Aged 31 at the time of the 2010 attack, Provan pretended to be 22 to get permission from Lauren Taylor’s dad to take her to the cinema. But instead of seeing a film, the monster drove her to a country park and raped her in a woodland while she froze to the spot.
After casually throwing his used condom to the floor and pulling up his clothes, Provan guided a shocked Lauren – who has bravely waived her right to anonymity and features in the Crime+Investigation documentary – out of the woods as though nothing had happened.
Driving them to a nearby McDonald’s, he instructed her over milkshakes to lie to her parents about where they’d been, even checking the film times and looking up the plots, so she could appear convincing.
Then, later that evening, Provan drove her to a children’s playground and raped her again – forcing her to perform a sex act on him near the play equipment.
When she finally got home, she said nothing to her dad, fearing he would blame himself for letting the police officer take her out – staying silent about her ordeal for six traumatising years.
“That episode landed harder because I could see my own 16-year-old daughter in that girl,” Will, 48, says ahead of the February 17 launch of the series. “When Lauren’s telling her story, she’s found the courage to come forward and speak.
“But what really hit me is her dad had said Provan was safe for her to go out with. When she said, ‘I didn’t say anything to my dad because I didn’t want him to blame himself’, that cut me in half and choked me up. I went home and hugged my daughter that night.
“All you want to do as a parent is protect your kids,” says Will, who has two children – daughter Renee and son Jayden, 20 – with his wife Michelle Mcsween-Mellor.
“I would blame myself. I don’t know how I’d cope with that. And I said in the programme, I’d want to kill him. It’s a visceral reaction, but it’s a human one.”
With Cops Gone Bad, Will hopes to shine a light on how the ‘bad apples’ of police forces were able to prey on their innocent victims for years before getting caught. But it’s not about cop-bashing, he insists.
“The public’s trust has been eroded since Wayne Couzens [the Met Police officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021 and is now serving a whole-life term]. David Carrick, who we covered in the first season, was in the same unit as Couzens – he had two decades of raping women,” he says.
“Then in this series we have Cliff Mitchell, who joined the Met even after he was accused of rape. I just think if there’s any doubt, even one per cent, don’t let them in [to the police]. Because once they’re in, their power is too strong.”
The authorities, says Will, need to be far more transparent about the changes they’re making to vetting processes in order to rebuild that precious trust.
“You think they would have learned something from the Wayne Couzens case that we cannot let another one slip through the net,” he says. “I know it’s impossible to say we can’t let another one in, but what changes did you make? The public needs to know, because no one knows. And that’s why this programme keeps the fire burning to keep asking them questions.”
Injustice is something that burns inside Will, too. It’s what has led him to roles like sub-postmaster Lee Castleton in the award-winning 2024 ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – a far cry from his Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps stint as Gaz that brought him to fame in 2001.
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