Trigger warning: domestic abuse, sexual violence
Faye Minton
A West Yorkshire Police officer has been suspended while domestic abuse allegations against him are investigated.
His ex-wife – who remains unnamed for her safety – told Sky News that convincing the force to investigate her experience has been a 19-month “uphill battle.”
Describing her account of the abuse, she shared: “It was slamming things, shouting, belittling, name-calling.”
She recalled how he would make remarks about “household objects making a good murder weapon,” and about her “getting what [she] deserved.”
“I wouldn’t feel safe calling 999.”
She claimed the abuse began with backhanded comments that she didn’t take seriously and eventually escalated to sexual violence. She alleges that she had to hide from him in rooms around their home to escape.
The woman said: “I wouldn’t feel safe calling 999, because I wouldn’t trust, given what’s happened, that they would even bother coming out at all.”
“At the end of the day, a police perpetrator is actually the most dangerous type of perpetrator. It’s a scary place to be where you feel that nobody’s on the other side of that phone to come and help you. It’s petrifying.”
“He had used his job to take “monstrous advantage of women”.”
She was encouraged to come forward when she saw video footage of David Carrick’s arrest in 2021. Carrick, a Metropolitan Police Officer, has since been jailed for life. He pleaded guilty to 49 charges – including 24 counts of rape against 12 women over two decades. A judge said he had used his job to take “monstrous advantage of women.”
One of his victims disclosed in a court-read witness statement that she didn’t trust the police anymore. She said: “If anything went wrong I don’t know whether I would want to call the police as I’d worry that they would send a male officer like him.”
“He should not have been a police officer.”
Discussing Carrick’s sentencing, Sir Mark Rawley, Met Commissioner, said: “We have failed. And I’m sorry. He should not have been a police officer.”
In January 2023, all chief constables in England and Wales were ordered by the National Police Chief’s Council to act on allegations. It was soon after announced that the Metropolitan Police were investigating 1,633 allegations of sexual offences or domestic violence from the past decade.
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Faye Minton
Faye is a former Empoword Editor in Chief and an MA International Journalism student at Swansea University.