I’ve lost all faith in justice, said victim of abuse

A TEACHER was abused by Stephen Mitchell for years after she was caught trying to cash stolen cheques in Marks and Spencer.

At his 2010 trial she recalled how he targeted her when she became a heroin addict: ‘I was handcuffed and taken in the back of a van with Mitchell. In my pocket I had an eighth of an ounce of heroin. I wasn’t dealing.

‘I just had a massive habit, but I was worried I would be done for dealing.

‘When I got to the police station, I was put in a cell but Mitchell came in and gave me the heroin back.

‘It was then that I realised he must be dodgy. Later, we were in an interview room, just me and him. He kept telling me not to get a solicitor, to just trust him.’

Mitchell made her perform a sex act on him. There was no CCTV in the police station and without any proof it would have simply been her word against his.

A year later Mitchell rearrested her and took her to a field where he indecently assaulted her in the dark.

In 2000, the death of a friend from a heroin overdose shocked her into coming off the drug later that year.

But Mitchell tried to keep her hooked. Over the next four years he would turn up at her house, find reasons to arrest her and then let her off with a caution in return for sexual favours. He would take her out in his patrol car and force her to carry out sex acts on him. He abused her more than 100 times.

‘He kept telling me I was disgusting and he was doing me a favour because no other man would have me,’ she said. ‘Sometimes he would bring me cigarettes and sweets. He would drive me home and then leave me.

‘He was a complete Jekyll and Hyde character and would change from being really nice to really horrible.

‘It is strange now but I blamed myself. I thought that it was all my own fault.’

When she tried to escape by moving house, Mitchell traced her through the police computer. And when she began to turn her life around and started studying for a degree he blackmailed her, threatening to arrest her for new offences unless she submitted to his demands.

He forced her to give him the keys to her flat and in 2003 he raped her.

Eventually the victim managed to rebuild her life and became a teacher.

After his sentence, she said: ‘I have lost all faith in the justice system. He should never have been a policeman, that was the only reason I met him. He should have been locked away for life.’