When Victoria texted then-police officer Brett Johnson — with whom she had a sexual relationship — saying she was feeling depressed, he took the opportunity to pursue his own sexual gratification.
Court documents reveal on one occasion in 2015, Victoria texted Johnson saying she was suicidal.
He responded "wanna f***".
In August of that year, Victoria expressed frustration at a lack of police action over a different matter.
Using his police email, Johnson asked for explicit pictures — Victoria sent some of her cleavage. Johnson continued to pressure her to send more photos.
Looking back at what happened, Victoria believes Johnson took advantage of her when she was vulnerable.
She was not the only one.
Today Johnson, 42, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in the County Court of Victoria after pleading guilty to 10 counts of misconduct in public office for offending against nine different women.
That will be followed by a two-year community corrections order involving 300 hours of unpaid community work.
The maximum sentence for misconduct in public office is 10 years' imprisonment.
One charge related to Johnson pursuing and engaging in a sexual relationship with Victoria, while two others related to pursuing intimate relationships with vulnerable women.
The remaining charges related to Johnson looking up information about Victoria and other women on a police database "without reasonable excuse or justification".
He initially faced almost 100 offences, however several of the more serious charges were ultimately dropped.
Prosecutors told the court Johnson persistently and actively targeted vulnerable women with his conduct — effectively using his position as a police officer for surveillance and to pursue sexual relationships.
One of those women, who is only being identified as Victoria, wants to explain how Johnson's offending irrevocably changed her life.
"I don't like the police or trust the police," she said.
"During COVID lockdown there were groups of police [out on the streets] so I sort of became a bit of a hermit in my apartment and that helped stack on nearly 30 kilos."
While she said Johnson could go on to start a new life as a plumber after his sentence, she was unsure if she would ever recover.
"It hangs around my neck to the day I die," she said.
"It's impacted my relationships … my self-esteem, my trust."
An investigation, then a relationship
Victoria was managing a Melbourne business when an employee's stolen laptop was reported to police in January 2012 and she became a potential witness.
Johnson was one of the investigating officers.
Victoria said Johnson was initially "quite pleasant" before, according to prosecution submissions, he threatened to park a marked police car outside the business to scare away potential clients.
About a week later, Johnson attended the business to take a statement from Victoria.
Later that night he started texting her using his personal phone and about a week later they began a sexual relationship.
"Nobody wants police sitting outside their business or their homes," Victoria said.
"[I was trying to] be polite and just sort of turn the situation around, and I guess that sort of became flirtatious."
Court documents said between 2012 and 2017 Johnson and Victoria had 15-20 sexual interactions.
According to the documents, on two occasions, they had sex in a police station interview room while Johnson was on duty.
"In hindsight … those are times where I look and think of how he took advantage," Victoria said.
"Was it one of these sicko fantasies, you know? That he had someone coming into work and him being the only one in the shop?"
If Johnson didn't know Victoria was vulnerable when they met, he found out over the course of their five-year sexual relationship.
Prosecution documents alleged Victoria told Johnson about her struggles with drug abuse and suicide attempts.
Despite becoming engaged and then married, he continued the affair and pursued sexual relationships with other women he met during the course of his employment.
During the relationship, Victoria regularly changed her phone number.
Looking back, she has realised there were times where Johnson contacted her on a number he shouldn't have had.
Court documents reveal Johnson looked up Victoria on the Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) database 28 times.
LEAP is a sensitive police database that catalogues a person's interactions with Victoria Police, including sensitive personal information such as drivers licence details, current address, photo and current telephone number.
Repeated privacy breaches in 'reign of terror on my headspace'
Finding out about the repeated privacy breaches has unnerved Victoria.
"It made me angry — really, really angry — that I had to have detectives knock on my door and start a three-year reign of terror on my headspace," she said.
"[I began] questioning everybody in my life.
Victoria has moved house about five times in recent years.
"As soon as my name's recorded at a police station and an address I just up and move," she said.
Judge Liz Gaynor accepted Johnson had already been punished due to the fact he was charged — she said he had lost his career as a police officer, volunteering positions and the lengthy investigation and court case had caused "great psychological distress".
Judge Gaynor also accepted Johnson was remorseful and had a good prospect of rehabilitation, but she said "the offending is still serious offending".
"It must be made very clear to the community that the power [police] hold is a privilege," she said.
Victoria said she was "overwhelmed" after the sentence was handed down.
"It's a good day for us all," she said.
Victoria said police officers were meant to be there to "protect and serve".
She said after what she had been through, she would not encourage her children to contact police if they needed help.
"I just don't trust that they'd help them," she said.
She said said police command needed to stamp out misconduct in its ranks faster.
"He was on the force for 12 years, I think, and how many times did he get away with pulling the same shit on vulnerable women?" she asked.
Predatory behaviour persists within Victoria Police
Johnson's offending isn't isolated.
Earlier this month, the state's anti-corruption watchdog found some Victoria Police officers are continuing to misuse their position to pursue sexual relationships with people they meet in the course of their duties in what IBAC labelled "predatory behaviour".
After reviewing 27 Victoria Police investigations of alleged predatory behaviour by officers between 2018 and 2022, IBAC found evidence predatory behaviour among its officers was ongoing and many cases went unreported.
"Police officers have been effectively preying on those vulnerable people to form these inappropriate sexual relationships," IBAC deputy commissioner Kylie Kilgour told ABC Radio Melbourne earlier this month.
More than half of all cases reviewed involved a pattern of behaviour by the perpetrator against more than one person.
While most investigations were thorough and included appropriate sanctions, Ms Kilgour said sometimes disciplinary outcomes were not in line with community expectations.
"I was expecting to see that all of these officers would be removed from the police force, that isn't what we've found," she said.
Despite efforts undertaken by Victoria Police in recent years to crack down on predatory behaviour, Ms Kilgour said more needed to be done.
IBAC made several recommendations to Victoria Police including improved training, clearer relationship guidelines, increased monitoring and strengthening internal investigations.
Victoria Police accepted IBAC's recommendations.
"Until we get to zero, IBAC will continue to be on the beat on this matter," Ms Kilgour said.
"We should not be experiencing this in a modern police force."
Victoria's lawyer, Jeremy King from Robinson Gill, said misuse of the LEAP database was a longstanding issue.
"Nothing will change about this … until we have proper external police oversight in Victoria and they change the LEAP database," he said.
'No-one is above the law'
In March, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton wrote to the force's employees after a rise in disciplinary hearings, warning that "no-one in this organisation is above the law".
"With this power comes great responsibility," the email said.
"That is why I will not tolerate misconduct of any kind from our employees."
Key themes that emerged during disciplinary hearings in 2022 included predatory behaviour, unjustified access and use of police information, sexual harassment and vilifying behaviour towards minority groups.
"Those [perpetrators] who we become aware of, we will hold to account," he told a press conference.
"In the past we haven't dealt with that very well."
