Met officer accused of rape said ‘I know how victims act’
A FORMER police officer who allegedly raped a woman at knifepoint told his victim that he had pre-planned the assault as he ignored her pleas to let her go, a court has heard.
The alleged victim said Cliff Mitchell approached her with a knife in September 2023 before tying her up with cable ties and putting tape over her mouth.
In a tearful police interview that was played to a jury at London’s Croydon Crown Court, she alleged that Mitchell threatened he would kill her.
The tape over her mouth kept on slipping as she cried but Mitchell just kept on reapplying it, she recalled.
The woman, who said she feels like she has “just blurred everything out” from that day, told the officers: “He told me to be quiet and not to scream.”
The woman said at first she could not believe what was happening and told him to leave. She added: “He said ‘that’s not happening. I know how victims act. You would say anything to stay alive’.”
She also told officers: “He kept saying ‘I’m smarter than you think. This has been pre-planned’. He just kept threatening me.” Mitchell, 24, of Wandsworth, south-west London, is charged with 13 counts of rape against two victims, breaching a non-molestation order and two counts of kidnapping. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The woman alleges that Mitchell forced her and another person to get into his car and she managed to escape by saying she had to get out of the vehicle because she felt sick.
There was bruising to her knees, a slight scabbed and reddened area on her elbow and scratches to her hip which she said came from her falling over as she ran away from Mitchell, the court heard.
She lost her shoes as she ran from the car. The court has heard that she was seen running through traffic by members of the public.
The trial continues.