Rape accuser says police officer who investigated case made unwanted sexual advances for a year

More allegations against police officers are coming to light following the revelation that serial rapist police officer David Carrick got away with his crimes for years, despite opportunities to stop him.

Two women have told their stories to Sky News.

One says she was preyed on by the officer investigating her rape case, another claims her alleged rapist ex-partner worked in professional standards – the department that would investigate predatory police officers.

‘Amy’, not her real name, reported an alleged rape and says the male officer investigating began to make sexual advances towards her.

She says: “He started saying to me, ‘I have to say this to you now, or I’m never going to tell you. I really like you and I really want to take you out on a date’.

“To which I was obviously then quite vulnerable, I’d just had a baby, I’d been raped, I was in a very dark place. And this officer was quite confrontational face-to-face.”

She claims the officer suggested he come to see her at night, with a bottle of gin, even when she was living in a women’s refuge.

Amy says: “I was on edge, I thought ‘what if he does turn up? If he turns up, do I have to have sex with him? Is he going to make me have sex with him? If I don’t have sex with him, is my case going to get closed because of it?’

“To me, he had a lot of power.”

Amy says the unwanted advances continued for a year after the trial, and he also made them to a female witness.

Eventually, police turned up at Amy’s door, telling her that this man was being investigated for things he’d allegedly done to other women. But the damage was done.

“You just don’t trust the police anymore,” she says.

“I had to report an ex-partner for a domestic incident, and I honestly didn’t want to. I sat there and said to my sister ‘I’m not going back to the police.'”

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She added: “But there was an incident where he’d attacked me, and the neighbours had rung the police. And the police turned up and it was two male officers.

“And the male officers asked me to go outside and said, ‘can you come outside and speak to us?’

“I said, ‘absolutely no way am I coming outside, I’m not going anywhere with you on my own.'”

‘A string of complaints’

‘Charlotte’, whose name we have also changed, reported her ex-partner for alleged rape.

He was working for professional standards within the police, the department that investigates abusive officers.

Read more:
Complaints against officers must be ‘taken more seriously’
Woman who reported police officer ex for rape says investigation ‘more traumatic’

Charlotte worked in the force too, and says he should never have had that job because he’d had a string of complaints against him.

She told Sky News: “I think to be fair the whole force was shocked that he had a job in the professional standards department, because it was common knowledge that he had been investigated so many times, that’s what he was known for.”

Despite previous allegations from other women, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute.

In a letter to Charlotte, they gave various reasons for dismissing her case such as “you were laughing as you told the suspect to ‘stop’.”

Another section states: “You could have pushed him away, and again he might not have heard you say ‘no’.”

And about another allegation where she claimed he was hurting her and had asked him to stop, it says, “He might have interpreted ‘ow’ in a different way, he might have believed you too were aroused by the hitting.”

‘Like I’ve been raped again’

The letter concludes: “To my mind you had the freedom to make a choice which included reluctantly consenting.”

Charlotte is disgusted by the legal concept of reluctant consent and says: “It’s just left me feeling like I’ve been raped again – but by the justice system, the people who are supposed to be looking after us.”

The force, which we’ve decided not to name, said that despite no criminal charges, Charlotte’s ex-partner faced a gross misconduct hearing, was dismissed and now remains on the barred list.

The CPS said: “We understand that our decision not to bring charges will be a disappointing one. Our role is to make decisions based on the evidence and the law.

“After carefully considering all the evidence in the case, including the account given by the complainant, we concluded the evidential requirement to bring a prosecution was not met.

“This decision was upheld following a Victims’ Right to Review and a detailed letter was sent to the complainant explaining the full reasons for our decision.”

It said all cases are dealt with “fairly and with integrity” and that people should continue to report rape and sexual assault to the police.

Charlotte believes predatory police officers gain confidence in the knowledge that so few rape cases reach court and that the stigma of speaking out also helps abusers.

But after seeing how serial rapist PC David Carrick escaped detection for so long, more women are deciding to break their silence.