Greater Manchester police constable, James Andrew Darnton, then 37, raped a 20-year-old student in her home after she asked him for help – she had sought for police intervention when her ex-boyfriend threatened to put naked photographs of her on the internet.
How the Rape Incident Happened
The cop was at the alleged victim’s home in Davyhulme with a colleague to attend to the woman. The officer was seen smirking when he saw the scantily-clad photographs.
Later that day she rang Darnton – who had left his card and personal phone number – to follow up on her case leading to the officer to return to her home this time unaccompanied.
The officer, now 53, came back into her house, and reportedly told the victim that ‘no one will listen’ to the threats made by her ex-boyfriend as she was from a ‘broken home’ and a ‘brown person’.
A recorded interview played to the courtroom, Darnton, who denies the charge, can be heard offering the woman, now 35, a glass of water after she became upset over the situation before following her into the kitchen and utility room.
Victim Impact Statement
‘I could feel his presence behind me and I was thinking this is not going to end with me getting a glass of water. He followed me into the utility room. I turned round and he was right there and he kissed me, really kissed me, quite intensely kissed me,’ the victim recalled.
‘He grabbed my breasts and squeezed and then turned me around and lent me over the worktop where the washing machine was underneath,’ she claimed.
The victim thought to herself: ‘He must be doing it because he cares about me, it must be because he likes me’.
‘I heard him unbuckle his belt and unzip and he pulled my leggings down just below my bum on top of my thighs and he penetrated me,’ she said.
Court heard: ‘He was going really hard and fast. It felt like it was really quick. I remember him making sexual noises.
‘I don’t remember him saying anything to me, he was holding me down. I just went really quiet. I wasn’t making any sexual noises, I was just waiting for it to finish.’
How the Cops Left and Never Returned
The pair then re-adjusted their clothing before the officer, started to speak about her complaint against her former partner.
He allegedly said: ‘It’s just your word against his. You are from a broken home, you are a brown person, no-one will listen.’
Darnton then allegedly said he would speak to her soon and left and never returned. ‘I didn’t ring him. I thought maybe I had enticed him to have sex.’
Darnton, now 53, faces one charge of rape between June 4 and July 1, 2009 which he denies.
