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.”
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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.
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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A council has won its bid to temporarily block asylum seekers from being housed at a hotel in Essex.
Epping Forest District Council sought an interim injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel in Epping, which is owned by Somani Hotels Limited.
A government attempt to delay the application was rejected by the High Court judge earlier on Tuesday.
The interim injunction now means the hotel has to be cleared of its occupants within 14 days.
Somani Hotels said it intended to appeal the decision.
Several protests have been held outside the hotel in recent weeks after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was charged with trying to kiss a teenage girl and denies the allegations. He is due to stand trial later this month.
Police officers ahead of a demonstration outside The Bell Hotel in July. Pic: PA
At a hearing last week, barristers for the council claimed Somani Hotels breached planning rules because the site is not being used for its intended purpose as a hotel.
Philip Coppel KC, for the council, said the problem was “getting out of hand” and “causing great anxiety” to local people.
He said the hotel “is no more a hotel [to asylum seekers] than a borstal to a young offender”.
File pic: PA
Piers Riley-Smith, for Somani Hotels Limited, said a “draconian” injunction would cause “hardship” for those in the hotel, arguing “political views” were not grounds for an injunction to be granted.
He also said contracts to house asylum seekers were a “financial lifeline” for the hotel, which was only 1% full in August 2022, when it was open to paying customers.
Protesters and counter-demonstrators outside The Bell Hotel in July. Pic: PA
The hotel housed migrants from May 2020 to March 2021, then from October 2022 to April 2024, with the council never instigating any formal enforcement proceedings against this use, Mr Riley-Smith said.
They were being placed there again in April 2025 and Mr Riley-Smith said a planning application was not made “having taken advice from the Home Office”.
At the end of the hearing last week, Mr Justice Eyre ordered that Somani Hotels could not “accept any new applications” from asylum seekers to stay at the site until he had made his ruling on the temporary injunction.
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