A woman who reported her ex-husband being raped by a police officer says detectives handled the case badly and their investigation “was more traumatic than the actual incident”.
The woman, who we’ll call “Sally” because she cannot be identified for legal reasons, said those leading the investigation into her allegations were co-workers or old friends of the accused.
Sally, who was also a police officer in the north of England, says the first person she confided in waited for her to finish her story before telling her he knew her husband from school and had been on a team tour with him .
Sally said: “He let me tell him everything that had happened from start to finish and then at the end he said let me tell you I grew up with him.”
She added: “The detective sergeant who was leading the investigation told me that my partner also worked for her, which shocked me.”
It took Sally eight years to come forward after the rape and she only found the courage to learn that her ex-partner was also allegedly abusive to his new wife.
Separately, she later discovered that a neighbor had raised the alarm about noisy, potentially violent behavior in the early hours of the morning.
The man had written: “Worrying thing is he works for the police and I thought he would know better.”
Sally said the alleged victim was never formally interviewed.
Following her allegations, Sally’s husband faces both a criminal investigation and a police professional standards investigation. She said when the criminal investigation was dropped, that appeared to be the signal for the internal review to drop.
She said: “They just don’t believe me. I feel like everything is being swept under the rug.”
Image: Sally claims she was raped by her ex-husband
Her husband kept his job until retirement and at one point it was suggested that he would work in the same building as Sally.
Read more: Met boss determined to clean up – but culture not easily changed Computer rapist case ‘absolutely despicable’, Rishi Sunak tells Met Police ‘He was evil’ – Victim describes months of abuse
After requesting access to the item, Sally discovered the file passed to the Crown Prosecution Service included what she said were false allegations against her, claiming she had repeatedly accessed her husband’s files.
Overall, she felt unsupported and was made to feel “needy” by asking for updates on the case. And she said that she herself, as a police officer, “was not allowed to be a victim.”
“If it happens again, I won’t report it”
With great reluctance, Sally admits that she has lost confidence in her own strength.
She said: “If it happened to me again I wouldn’t report it. I found the investigation more traumatic than the actual incident.”
Following the conviction of serial rapist David Carrick, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has revealed that more than 1,000 of his officers remain in service despite allegations of sexual or domestic abuse.
Image: PC David Carrick
The Home Office has asked all police forces to check their officers and staff against national police databases.
Sally said the police needed to take complaints against their own more seriously. And she thinks the police would have acted differently if her ex-husband hadn’t been a police officer.
That’s the big concern – that the police have a blind spot for their own bad apples.
Sky News contacted the police, where Sally worked, but they declined to comment.
Add Comment