Former Victoria Police officer Gregory Booth jailed for raping young girls after joining the force

A junior police officer from Melbourne’s west who raped young girls after joining the force has learnt his fate, with one of his victims lashing the father for making her life a “living hell”.

A former police officer has been found guilty of rape. Picture: Zizi Averill

A junior police officer from Melbourne’s west who raped young girls after joining the force has been jailed, with one of his victims lashing the cop for making her life a “living hell”.

Gregory Booth, 58, joined Victoria Police in 1984 after leaving Melton Secondary College but rather than protect the public, the young officer began preying on teenage girls.

Booth was sentenced in the County Court this month to six years and four months behind bars, with a non-parole period of 3½ years, after he was found guilty by a jury in June of 10 historic sex offences.

The court heard the former leading senior constable, who racked up 35 years of service, raped two girls from his local area during the late 1980s as he embarked on his career.

Gregory Booth trained at the Victoria Police Academy in the early 1980s. Picture: Darren Tindale

In 1988, Booth, aged in his 20s, pulled up in his ute and offered a 15-year-old girl a lift, who he had previously indecently assaulted when she was only 12.

He raped her in the back seat of his vehicle as she recounted laying there “not moving”.

After the horrific assault, the police officer dropped her off and said “orooroo, thanks for that”.

Over the course of a year, he raped the same girl in the backyard of a property and again in a public reserve on a patch of dirt.

During one of the assaults, the woman said she was crying and “felt like she couldn’t breathe”.

In a powerful victim impact statement, which she read out in court, the woman described how his offending made her feel “powerless and worthless”.

“Why did you make my life a living hell?” she asked.

“For almost 40 years now, I have lived with what you did to me.

“For almost 40 years, I have watched over my shoulder and tried not to let you find where I live or am.

“For almost 40 years, I have been silent because no one listened, no one helped and no one stood up for me.”

In 1988, Booth also raped a 16-year-old girl after he allegedly broke into her house as she slept and forced her to have sex with him despite her telling him no.

The court heard the pair had hours earlier engaged in consensual sex.

In April 2016, Booth was said to have found the purse of one of his victim’s daughters on a train and took it to the woman’s work.

Months later, she made a statement to police regarding what had happened decades earlier.

She also contacted Booth’s other victim, suspecting she had also been impacted by his offending.

The married father of two was suspended from Victoria Police in 2016 without pay after he was charged, before he formally resigned in 2022.

Booth was sentenced in the County Court to six years and four months behind bars. Picture: David Crosling

After a lengthy trial, he was found guilty by a jury of three charges of indecent assault, five charges of rape, one charge of attempted rape and one charge of sexual penetration with a person under 16.

However, he was acquitted of 24 other charges, including rape.

Booth’s defence barrister Theo Kassimatis KC argued the verdicts of guilty were “inconsistent” with the verdicts of not guilty.

He said it was “irreconcilable” that his client was found guilty of an indecent assault and a rape and then seconds later, as part of the same incident, was acquitted of a rape but convicted of sexual penetration of a person under 16.

However, Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis said it was not up to her to determine whether the verdicts were “unsatisfactory”.

“You were a police member for most of your offending but I accept … your position did not materially impact the offending or facilitate it,” she said.

But she noted the fact Booth was a police officer was a factor explaining why his victims did not come forward at the time of the offences.

The court heard Booth suffers from major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

He has no criminal history and was described by former colleagues as “hardworking, reliable and as having integrity”.

He is expected to appeal against his convictions in the Court of Appeal, with Mr Kassimatis arguing Judge Karapanagiotidis should “stay” the sentence until the outcome.

However, Booth was taken into custody after she ruled it was not in the “interests of justice” to stay the operation of the sentence.

He will be eligible for parole in 2027.