You’ve met the devil: What PC guilty of 13 rapes told one victim
A FORMER police officer is facing jail time after being convicted of multiple rapes – telling one victim ‘you’ve met the devil’ as he assaulted her at knifepoint.
Cliff Mitchell, 24, first had a rape complaint made against him in 2017, but the investigation was dropped and he went on to join the Metropolitan Police.
Between 2014 and 2017, Mitchell had raped a child three times before she turned 13 – and a further three times after. She was assaulted on at least 30 other occasions.
After the case was dropped, Mitchell, of Wandsworth, was allowed to join the force, and he committed further rapes.
He told his second victim she would never be believed because he was a policeman.
Mitchell was based in Hounslow, in the West Area Basic Command Unit. He was only arrested after his second victim fled his car, where he was holding her prisoner, and ran terrified among traffic in Hackbridge, south-west London.
He tried to drag her back to his car but a motorist rescued the woman and drove her to safety, as the victim told a 999 operator ‘he’s behind us’, ‘he kidnapped me’.
Mitchell was arrested by his colleagues and a search of a property to linked to him revealed cable ties similar to those used on the victim.
Only then were the previous rape allegations against him reinvestigated. He was sacked in December for breaching a non-molestation order imposed last July, after which he had remained in the Met.
Yesterday, as a jury convicted Mitchell of 13 rapes, kidnapping, and breach of a nonmolestation order, the Met Police admitted ‘this is another case which will impact the confidence people have in us’.
Prosecutor David Burns told Croydon Crown Court that Mitchell, who denied all charges, raped his second victim seven times over three years, including at knifepoint in her home last September.
The court heard that he bound her hands with cable ties, blindfolded her, held a knife to her throat and said: ‘ You’ve met the devil.’ Mr Burns added: ‘He said he would kill her if she screamed and put tape around her mouth. He said if she tried to run, he would stab her.’
Last night Met Police deputy assistant commissioner Stuart Cundy said: ‘I am sickened by Mitchell’s abhorrent behaviour and the pain he caused.
‘Mitchell not only carried out a sustained campaign of abuse against both of his victims, but he told one she would never be believed due to the fact he was a police officer.
‘This brazen abuse of power makes Mitchell’s actions all the more deplorable.
‘I know this is another case which will impact the confidence people have in us.’
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said: ‘There are serious questions as to how Mitchell was able to obtain a job in the Met, having been investigated for rape.
‘The fact that police did not know Mitchell had a non-molestation order out against him whilst he was serving shows total system failure in tackling violence against women.’
‘A brazen abuse of power’