May 2002 Policeman put on sex register A GAY police constable has been put on the Sex Offenders Register and will have to report regularly to police for the next five years. PC Matthew Cowling, based at Bexleyheath police station, was given a conditional discharge for 12 months by an Old Bailey judge after being found guilty of gross indecency with a 16-year-old boy at an earlier trial. The offence took place in an alley near Russell Park, in Bexleyheath. Cowling, who lives in Plumstead, was cleared of buggery, indecent assault and three other charges of gross indecency with the boy between July 2000 and June 2001. He now faces a Metropolitan Police disciplinary hearing and looks certain to lose his job. At his trial, in April, the court heard how Cowling had been put in contact with the boy through a teenage girl doing work experience at Bexleyheath police station. She was a friend of the boy, then only 15 and had recently “come out” as gay. Cowling denied having full sex with him and maintained he believed the boy was 16. In fact, the boy was not 16 until October 2000. Sentencing him, Judge Anne Goddard QC told Cowling: “This offence was not connected with your responsibilities as a police officer. The right way of dealing with you now is by way of a conditional discharge.”