I tried to kill myself after they let cop who raped me go free

Beast’s victim tells of torment

A VICTIM of rapist cop Stephen Mitchell has told how she tried to take her own life after his release triggered a mental breakdown.

Candice Tote attempted suicide after learning vile Mitchell had been freed from jail just seven years after being handed two life sentences.

She was one of seven women who suffered months of horrific abuse and testified against the former officer.

In 2011 he was told he may never be freed after a court heard he may have attacked up to 30 victims during a five-year reign of terror.

Yet it emerged this week the 50-year-old was released last September – but Candice was only told two months ago. The shock of the news put her in hospital.

EXPOSED

After being discharged she returned home to find her partner of 10 years, John Lincoln, 34, dead on the sofa – leaving her feeling more exposed than ever. That led to another month in hospital as Candice battled her fears.

In an exclusive interview, she told how she now lives in fear that Mitchell could track her down and kill her, after her evidence helped lock him up.

Waiving her right to anonymity Candice, 42, said: “An officer came to my home and told me he’d been released last year. I was screaming – I didn’t understand. I had a breakdown.”

Mitchell had tormented and assaulted Candice for months, tracking her on the police computer when she tried to flee his clutches. He would even sit outside her home in wait for her.

Candice said: “I can’t sleep at night. I’m worried I’ll turn around and Mitchell will be there.

“I’m scared he’ll kill me or torture me. Even now I feel like he’s crawling over me.

“He was released after his first hearing with the parole board. How can that be right? We all thought he’d never get out. It’s not right. I will never recover.” Candice described how Mitchell targeted her in 2001 after her troubled life spiralled out of control and she was in the grip of heroin addiction.

The rogue cop was able to use police records to stalk her as she desperately moved house.

Mitchell, of Glasgow, even raped Candice while she was pregnant.

He drove her in a patrol car to remote beauty spots to carry out his horrific attacks. And Candice lashed the Parole Board for “falling for his lies” – claiming he conned them into believing he was reformed.

She said: “He knows how to impress the Parole Board, he knows exactly what to say. He’ll be laughing now.

“It’s bad enough he could con his way into the police in the first place.

“They’re not thinking of the people he has hurt, it’s going to be with them for the rest of their lives.” Candice first met Mitchell when she was homeless, sleeping under bridges in Newcastle, stealing to feed her habit.

Candice said: “The abuse went on a long time, he’d come to my home saying there was a warrant out for my arrest. He’d sit outside in a black Jeep for hours.

“Sometimes I’d just hide, I’d lie on the kitchen floor for hours. One time I went outside and screamed at him, but he just said, ‘I’m a police officer, I can do what I want’.

“He even came to my house when I was clean and off drugs. He gave me a bag of heroin, he knew I’d take it.”

Mitchell stood trial in 2010 for arresting victims on trumped-up charges and releasing them in return for sexual favours. When he was found guilty and jailed, psychiatrists warned he should never be freed.

Candice gave days of evidence as Mitchell denied having waged a brutal five-year campaign of abuse on vulnerable women.

But she claims once he was found guilty she was “dropped like a hat” by the police and given no help.

Mum-of-six Candice said: “Officers begged me to give evidence. They knew I’d been attacked but I didn’t want to go to court.

“But I did, and had to watch as he smiled at me in court. It was horrible.

“Then as soon as he was found guilty I was dropped like a hat. They’ve told me nothing, I had no contact, not even counselling.” Northumbria Police said: “Safeguarding and supporting vulnerable victims of crime is our top priority and if someone has been a victim of rape or sexual assault we would urge them to speak to us.

“We have expert officers who have been given specific training, from the moment they report the abuse and through any potential prosecution.”

A spokesman for the Parole Board refused to comment further on Mitchell’s case this week. The decision to free him in September 2017, came three months before a change in law following the controversy over black cab rapist John Worboys.

They previously stated: “Decisions are focused on whether a prisoner would represent a significant risk.”