She reported her police officer ex-husband for rape – and investigation ‘was more traumatic than the incident’
A woman who reported her police officer ex-husband for rape says detectives mishandled the case and their investigation “was more traumatic than the actual incident”.
“Sally” – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – has said those running the investigation into her allegation had been colleagues or old friends of the accused.
She was also a police officer in the North of England, and says the first person she confided in waited for her to finish her story, before telling her he’d known her husband since 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 of it said, right let me tell you that I grew up with him.”
She added: “The detective sergeant who was leading the investigation, she told me that my partner had worked for her as well, which shocked me.”
It had taken eight years for Sally to come forward since the rape, and she only found the courage after learning that her ex-partner was also alleged to have been violent towards his new wife.
Separately, she later discovered a neighbour had raised the alarm about loud, potentially violent behaviour in the early hours of the morning.
The man had written: “The worrying thing is he works for the police and I thought he’d know better.”
Sally said the alleged victim was never formally interviewed.
Following her allegations, Sally’s husband faced both a criminal investigation and a probe by Police Professional Standards. She said that when the criminal investigation was dropped, that seemed to be the cue to drop the internal review.
She said: “I just don’t feel believed. I feel like it’s all been brushed under the carpet.”
Her husband kept his job until retirement and at one point it was suggested he would be working in the same building as Sally.
After a subject access request, Sally discovered that the file passed to the Crown Prosecution Service included what she said were false allegations against her, claiming she had repeatedly accessed files on her husband.
Overall, she felt she was unsupported and was made to feel “needy” by asking for updates on the case. And she said, as a police officer herself, she “wasn’t allowed to be a victim”.
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Sally claimed she was raped by her ex-husband
‘If it happened again, I wouldn’t report it’
With great reluctance, Sally admits she has lost trust in her own force.
She said: “If it happened to me again, I wouldn’t report it. I found the investigation was more traumatic than the actual incident.”
In the wake of serial rapist PC David Carrick’s conviction, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley revealed that more than 1,000 of his officers remain in service despite allegations of sexual or domestic abuse.
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 need to take complaints against its own more seriously. And she believes the police would have acted differently if her ex-husband was not an officer.
That is the big concern – that the police have a blind spot for its own bad apples.
Sky News contacted the police force that Sally worked for, but it declined to comment.
A police officer has described the moment he was shot with a crossbow – as his “extremely dangerous” attacker was sentenced to nine years in jail.
Jason King, 54, fired the weapon at PC Curtis Foster after stabbing a neighbour, a man in his 60s, following an altercation in Downley, Wycombe, on 10 May last year.
PC Foster was struck in the leg by a crossbow bolt while King chased after him and his fellow unarmed officer.
Jason King armed with the crossbow chases the officer. Pic: Thames Valley Police
King stabbed his neighbour in the stomach following an altercation. Pic: Thames Valley Police
“I knew something had impacted me, but my adrenaline was so high that the pain wasn’t really there,” PC Foster said.
“I first realised I was bleeding quite a lot when I could feel it running down my leg, and then I touched my leg with above my trousers, and my whole hand was red where it’d gone through my trousers already.”
PC Foster and his colleague cleared the area of civilians, while armed officers chased King to a local park.
King also fired the crossbow at a police dog but missed.
He was ordered to drop the weapon, but instead started running with it in hand towards the exit of the park to where PC Foster had escaped.
An armed officer fired one shot at King, striking him in the abdomen, to stop him.
PC Curtis Foster was hit in the leg by a crossbow bolt shot by King. Pic: Thames Valley Police
PC Foster. Pic: Thames Valley Police
‘Covered in my blood’
As King was apprehended, paramedics and his fellow officers treated the seriously injured PC Foster.
“There was a lot of blood. My two colleagues that turned up initially on scene were covered in my blood – that’s how much blood I’d lost,” PC Foster said.
“When we got to the hospital, the doctor had a feel of it and said that I was really lucky it didn’t strike an artery. It was a couple of centimetres away from hitting an artery in the back of my leg.”
PC Foster has since made a full recovery, as did the neighbour King stabbed.
King himself was taken to hospital under police supervision with potentially life-changing injuries and was discharged 10 days later, when he was arrested and taken into police custody.
King was apprehended by armed police officers in a nearby park. Pic: Thames Valley Police
On Wednesday, King was jailed at Aylesbury Crown Court for nine years with a further three years on extended licence having previously pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, having an article with a blade or point, having an offensive weapon, wounding with intent and affray regarding the incident.
“Jason King will now serve a substantial prison sentence as a result of his violent actions on 10 May 2024. The community and residents of Downley are much safer for it,” said senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Nick Hind.
He added: “The courage of our officers in dealing with this incident was second to none.”
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‘Significant threat to police’
DI Hind explained that the impact the incident had in the local community couldn’t be underestimated as King was “an extremely dangerous man, who posed a significant threat to police, other emergency services and members of the community”.
A mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct was made after the police shooting of King.
The IOPC, which concluded its investigation in November, commended “everybody involved in this incident”, according to DI Hind.
A member of rap trio Kneecap was greeted by hundreds of supporters as he arrived at court this morning, charged with allegedly supporting a proscribed terror organisation.
Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in London in November last year.
Demonstrators waving flags and holding banners in support of the rapper greeted him with cheers as he made his way into Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The rapper is mobbed by fans and media as he arrives at court. Pics: PA
Supported by his Kneecap bandmates Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, it took the rapper more than a minute to enter the building as security officers worked to usher him inside through a crowd of photographers.
Fans held signs which read “Free Mo Chara”, while others waved Irish and Palestinian flags.
As the hearing got under way, O hAnnaidh confirmed his name, date of birth and address, with the court hearing an Irish language interpreter would be present.
During a previous hearing, prosecutors said the 27-year-old is “well within his rights” to voice his opinions on the Israel-Palestine conflict, but said the alleged incident at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town was a “wholly different thing”.
O hAnnaidh is yet to enter a plea to the charge.
Bandmates Naoise O Caireallain (pictured, centre) and JJ O Dochartaigh are supporting O hAnnaidh. Pic: Reuters
Who are Kneecap?
Kneecap put out their first single in 2017 and rose to wider prominence in 2024 after the release of their debut album and an eponymously titled film – a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and their fight to save the Irish language.
The film, in which the trio play themselves and co-star alongside starring Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender, won the BAFTA for outstanding debut earlier this year, for director and writer Rich Peppiatt.
Last year, they won a discrimination case against the UK government after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award when she was business secretary.
They are known for songs including H.O.O.D, Fine Art, and Better Way To Live, featuring Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten.
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