Woman receives payout after police dismiss rape allegation as 'b******s'

A woman has received a five-figure payout after her rape allegation was dismissed as “b******s” by police officers in mocking emails.

The alleged victim contacted Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in November 2011 to claim she had been sexually assaulted but this was not recorded as a crime.

In email exchanges, a detective sergeant wrote to a police constable, before forensic results had been returned, saying: “No crime submitted due to it all being b******s.”

The female PC replied: “Sure, forensics won’t even authorise it.”

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Officers came back to the woman five years later – two weeks before her wedding – to say that the same man had been accused by another alleged victim.

They told her they had lost the recording of her original interview and she would have to set out her evidence again.

In a statement through Hudgell Solicitors, the woman said: “It had been so hard to feel so dismissed and judged.

“When I gave my original statement I felt I wasn’t being believed. I heard nothing from the police either as they said it all depended on the forensics.”

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The officers ignored a recommendation further DNA testing should be carried out on clothing, the alleged victim’s solicitors said.

They exchanged further messages, with the PC emailing the sergeant to say: “As thought, no trace of semen.”

The more senior officer replied: “You’re joking!!! I thought this case was nailed on!! She had a vision of darkness, a heavy feeling and everything!!”

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The woman believes that police failed to take her claims seriously because she was at a house party and had been drinking.

In 2015, the same man was accused of raping a second woman, and the following year officers contacted the first alleged victim.

She gave her statement again, but the case later collapsed because the second alleged victim was too ill to give evidence in court.

In total, four officers were investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and found to have a case to answer for misconduct for failing to properly investigate an allegation of rape and failing to record it as a crime.

Two of the officers had already left the force before the IOPC investigation was launched, and the female constable resigned before her misconduct hearing.

The detective sergeant received a written warning.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have apologised to the woman, saying the level of service she received was “well below the very least she would have expected”.