A Tasmanian police officer who died by suicide while under investigation over multiple child sexual abuse offences has been described as “just the greatest groomer” in a review that details three decades of offending.

An interim report by former war crimes prosecutor Regina Weiss into Senior Sergeant Paul Reynolds’ conduct, found he groomed and sexually abused teenage boys between 1988 and 2018, largely in the state’s north and north-west.

It found the former police officer, football coach and administrator, and basketball umpire used his positions to groom “his victims, their parents and the small communities they lived in”.