Shocking: The five-year-old victim was raped by the 12-year-old son of a neighbour
When Sara and Peter’s five-year-old daughter was raped by the 12-year-old son of a close friend, the couple were distraught.
Not only had their
youngest child’s innocence been shattered in the most unspeakable
manner, but she had endured a horrendous physical and emotional trauma.
They
immediately reported the assault to their local Essex police, in the
belief that while they, as a family, would help their child come to
terms with her ordeal, the force would pursue her attacker.
But
the result was not the prompt conviction they expected. Instead – as
documents seen by The Mail on Sunday make all too clear – they have been
subjected to an extraordinary catalogue of blunders, cover-ups and
betrayals by the officers they trusted to bring the culprit to justice.
It is three and a half years since the rape, and the family are still waiting.
In
that time, Peter has been hounded through the courts, and the family
have been forced to spend more than £40,000 in legal fees and lost
countless thousands in earnings.
One
senior officer admitted to the couple that the investigation of the
case had been ‘piss poor’. Officers wrongly claimed that they had
reported the case to the Crown Prosecution Service; omitted having the
rapist’s name added to the Sex Offenders Register; neglected to take
fingerprints, DNA samples or photographs; ignored opportunities to
instigate a Section 47 child protection joint investigation with Social
Care; and took limited disciplinary action against the officers
involved.
And
the culprit, who admitted the rape in a taped interview, escaped with
nothing more than a youth caution, after being told by one police
officer: ‘Do it with someone your own age next time.’
‘All
of those who should have protected our daughter at such a vulnerable age
have let her down,’ says Sara. ‘These people should be held to account.
How can we ever have confidence in the police again? They dealt
leniently with the rapist yet relentlessly pursued us.
‘Our
family’s lives have been on hold. I feel like someone pressed the pause
button on our lives and has never pressed play again. And our daughter
believes no one in authority ever listened to her. Or ever will again.’
Their
daughter, now eight, was so distressed at how she was sidelined that
she wrote a letter to each of the child abuse officers involved.
Damning: Essex
Police Former Chief Inspector Sue Harrison and Deputy Chief Constable
Derek Benson have been criticised for their handling of the case
Part
of that letter read: ‘When I was five something very bad happened and
it was your job to make sure he was properly dealt with and punished.
But you didn’t do your job and you let me down.
‘This
makes me sad, upset and angry because I am only a little girl. I am
very disapointed (sic) in you. I hope one day soon he gets what he
deserves.’
She got no responses.
She
had previously asked written questions of Derek Benson, Essex Police
Deputy Chief Constable. While Mr Benson replied, apologising, his
response did little to convince Peter and Sara they would ever achieve
justice.
In
a handwritten letter, on Essex Police notepaper – seen by the MoS – he
wrote: ‘I am very sorry for the mistakes made by Essex Police when we
looked in to finding out what had happened to you... I am really sorry
that you have had such a horrible experience and I wish you the very
best for the future.’
The
courts have banned identifying anyone involved – including on social
media websites. Sara and Peter’s names have been changed.
The
little girl’s ordeal began in 2011. The parents were friendly with a
couple who lived nearby in a small Essex town. The mothers had known
each for years and spent time in each others homes; the couples
occasionally dined out together.
ONE
sunny August afternoon, as Sara explains it, she and her daughter went
for lunch at the friend’s house. All the children were in and out,
playing.
Unbeknown
to Sara, her friend’s 12-year-old son beckoned her daughter upstairs
into his bedroom. There he closed the door and curtains, subjected her
to porn on his laptop, then raped her. The next day the little girl told
her mum what happened.
‘As
a parent, nothing can prepare you for the sheer devastation of a moment
like that,’ Sara says. ‘She was very upset because the boy had told her
this was a game of husbands and wives and was to be a special secret
that she must never tell anyone.
The victim, now
eight, was so distressed at how she was sidelined that she wrote a
letter to each of the child abuse officers involved
‘We
have brought up our daughter to know children shouldn’t have any
secrets from their parents, and she was confused, distressed and crying
about that.’
The next day Peter contacted Essex Police Child Abuse Unit.
‘My first discussion was with a detective constable who was rude and unhelpful,’ says Peter.
‘But a sergeant intervened and we agreed my wife would provide a statement regarding our daughter’s disclosures.
‘Shortly
after we returned home from giving the statement, the sergeant
telephoned and explained that the boy had admitted everything during a
voluntary interview so our little girl would not need to be interviewed
and he said he would report the incident to Social Care.
‘We
thought everything possible was being done. Eventually we found out
that this sergeant had refused a strategy meeting with Social Care which
would have kick-started a joint child protection investigation for our
daughter. His failure to do that had catastrophic results.’
Six
weeks later, in November 2011, Sara came home to find an answerphone
message from Detective Constable Tracy Bainbridge from Essex Police’s
Child Abuse Unit. ‘She casually stated that the boy who had admitted to
raping our daughter had received a youth caution for the offence,’ Sara
recalls. ‘We were absolutely horrified. Somehow, the case had concluded.
‘Our
daughter had been suffering terribly. At that time we believed she
would never recover. She couldn’t bear to have her bedroom door closed.
She was terrified of seeing her abuser.’
By
now Peter and Sara realised their daughter probably couldn’t continue
living so close to her abuser. Peter went to the friend’s house to
explain this. And so began another distressing chapter in their ordeal.
One senior Essex Police officer admitted to the couple that the investigation of the case had been ‘piss poor’
Peter
says that, though understandably upset, he intended to have a brief
conversation which, he hoped, would help to clear the air. He told Essex
police of his intention and invited them to send an officer. They
declined.
‘I had a brief chat at the door with the boy’s father but he was extremely angry,’ he recalls.
The
next day, to Peter’s astonishment, Essex Police contacted him as the
friend had made a complaint. In February 2012, the couple received a
letter from Essex Police warning them both over the alleged harassment
of the rapist’s father.
Sara,
by now struggling to cope, was prescribed antidepressants and became
reluctant to leave the house. In March 2012 their daughter was referred
to a long-term specialist programme for sexually abused children and
began an intensive 18-month programme. A month later, however, as the
family were having dinner, police officers arrived at their home.
‘I
was confronted by two burly officers, one kicked the door and walked
into our hallway,’ Peter says. ‘They announced they were there to arrest
me for alleged “harassment without violence” against the rapist’s
father. I was arrested in front of our children and taken to a marked
police car outside. The children were completely distraught. I was
eventually released after many hours in a custody cell.’
In
the summer of 2012, the rapist and his family moved away. But the
harassment case continued. High Court papers were served on Peter, Sara
and, unbelievably, on their 15-year-old son. The rapist’s parents had
sought an injunction to prevent further ‘harassment’ and damages against
the victim’s family.
Things
were about to get worse still. Essex Police brought criminal
proceedings against Peter for the same alleged ‘harassment’. In November
2012, Peter received a full acquittal in a crown court.
The
couple insisted upon seeing the rape case paperwork – also seen by the
MoS – and discovered a catalogue of errors. After much insistence, a
meeting was organised with Detective Inspector Jane Glassfield from
Essex Police Child Abuse Unit.
During
the meeting DI Glassfield told Sara that the CPS had been contacted and
it was they who decided it was not in the public interest to proceed
with the rape case. ‘She said she acted upon their advice and authorised
the youth caution.’
This turned out to be untrue.
‘We
discovered that a youth caution cannot be given for rape – such
warnings are intended for low-level crime. Formal written CPS advice
must always be sought from a prosecutor in rape cases, but it became
clear that such advice had not been sought.’
DI
Glassfield also disclosed that the Child Abuse Unit officers had not
placed the offender on the Sex Offenders’ Register as they should
automatically have done.
In
early 2013 the Deputy Chief Constable, Derek Benson, authorised
Operation Falcon which was to investigate Essex Police officers’ conduct
in the rape and harassment cases. It was headed by Det Supt Tracy
Hawkings and had a team of six investigating officers.
Hawkings
confirmed to the parents that a full Section 47 Child Protection Joint
Investigation should have been undertaken in the child abuse case with
Social Care but hadn’t been. She added that the rape investigation was,
in her opinion, ‘piss poor’.
Hawkings
admitted that the matters in relation to the rape case were considered
so serious that four Child Abuse Unit officers had been served with
gross misconduct notices. Essex Police then voluntarily referred
themselves to the IPCC.
During
the enquiry, it was established that, on the day the rape offence was
reported, two Child Abuse Unit detectives visited the rapist’s family at
home and invited him to give a voluntary interview.
During
the taped interview, the culprit mentioned other friends of his who
were committing acts on their siblings, but no action was taken on this.
Indeed one Child Abuse Unit officer, DC Paul Alabaster, admitted he
told the 12-year-old boy, and always told other young sex offenders, to
‘do it with someone your own age next time’.
‘The force also admitted that no formal CPS advice had been sought and no file had ever been prepared nor submitted,’ says Sara.
‘During
a meeting with the Regional Chief Crown Prosecutor, we were told that
the CPS was “disgusted” at how our case had been dealt with and
confirmed that, had the case been presented to them as a formal advice
file, as it should have been, they would have formally prosecuted the
offender.’
Sara drove to Essex Police
headquarters (above) in Chelmsford for a meeting with the force’s
Assistant Chief Constable, Sue Harrison, but she was unable to spare any
time to see the mother
Hawkings
wrote her Operation Falcon report during July and August 2013 and then
submitted it to the Deputy Chief Constable Derek Benson. Though serious
failings were acknowledged, the gross misconduct against all four Child
Abuse Unit officers had been downgraded.
An
appeal to the IPCC confirmed there would be no more than misconduct
meetings for DC Alabaster and DC Bainbridge. By this time DI Glassfield
had retired.
‘We
discovered the culprit had admitted the rape in his taped interview but
the officers did not report him for the offence. Thus the Essex Police
Child Abuse Unit officers decided to give a caution for rape of a small
child without CPS advice. We specifically asked if the failing officers
would return to work within the Child Abuse Unit and were assured that
this would “absolutely not” happen,’ Peter says.
Bainbridge and Alabaster had returned to the Essex Police Child Abuse Unit, where they remain as serving officers.
Bainbridge even announced a party on Facebook to celebrate ‘it all being over’.
In a statement, Essex Police confirmed that three officers had been issued with written warnings but refused to comment further.
‘For our family it will never be over,’ says Sara.
‘Hawkings has now been promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent – Head of Public Protection and the Child Abuse Unit.
‘Our family no longer has any faith in law and order nor in justice. For our daughter, there has been none.’
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