Aged 13 I was sexually assaulted by a man who was found guilty and sentenced to 3 months in prison.
When I was 14 several of our local neighbourhood friendly bobbies often came to our house for a cuppa and a chat with my parents to see how I was doing and general chit chat with my parents. They knew about the sexual assault case as they were from the police station it was reported to which was very local to our house. This one time my parents were away on holiday with my younger sister for 2 weeks, whilst I and my 21-year-old sister stayed at home, me being in her care. We got along very well so it was fun.
One late evening one of the cops came knocking on the door. My sister was upstairs so I answered. He asked if I was ok and was I going to ask him in for a cup of tea. I felt perfectly safe with this man as he was a cop who knew my family. I went to the kitchen, put the kettle on and when I turned around he had followed me into the kitchen, pinned me against the cupboards and worktop, pressing his hard penis against me whilst saying ‘How about it then, come on how about it, you know what it’s about’. I was mortified and said ‘How about what?, get off me’ We struggled briefly as I tried to get away from him and told him my sister was upstairs. He released me at that point. He said he didn’t mean it and was only joking. He left and I told my sister what had happened.
When my parents came back from holiday my sister told them what happened. They called the police to complain and I had to make a statement. I went to the police station on my own to make this statement with a policewoman, no appropriate adult, just me and her in a room. She bullied and intimidated me, shoved me a few times and said nobody believed me and I am not going to be allowed to ruin a good cop’s career so I best take back what I had said. I was not allowed to make a statement against him. My parents never supported me once with what happened as the cop was a decent man and good copper they said. The whole incident never left me, however, it did send me on a downward spiral of drinking, drug use and promiscuity. To not be believed by my own parents was an utter betrayal let alone the local police. I was never the same again.
Constabulary: Hertfordshire Constabulary
Timespan: 1970
Did you report it to the police?: Yes
Your ethnicity: White British
Have you experienced suicidality due to this?: Prefer not to say
Are you disabled as defined under the Equality Act 2010?: No
