‘Arrogant’ officer jailed for raping sleeping woman
AN “ARROGANT” policeman who thought he was “irresistible” has been jailed for five years for raping a woman as his wife slept in a bedroom nearby.
“Laddish” Pc Ian Clarke, 48, had a “disrespectful and dismissive” attitude to women with an “overblown sense of your own self-importance”, Mold Crown Court heard.
The father-of-one, a police officer working in the major crimes unit of North Wales Police, walked in naked on the sleeping victim and got into bed with her.
He then raped the woman, who was vulnerable through drink, before leaving 15 minutes later to rejoin his sleeping wife – herself a detective constable in the same force. He was off duty at the time.
Clarke, who had also served in Afghanistan with the Territorial Army, had denied the rape on December 13 2015, but was convicted last month after a trial.
Text messages between him and another man, which were not shown to the jury during the trial, were “immature, laddish and disrespectful of women generally”, the court heard.
He had also trawled dating sites behind his wife’s back.
Clarke, who had also been drinking on the night, claimed the sex with his victim was consensual and merely a “drunken dalliance”.
And he complained he had been made unwelcome by police colleagues in Wales after transferring from Greater Manchester Police in 2013.
He had shown “not an ounce of remorse”, the court heard.
Jailing the defendant, of St Peter’s Park, Northop, Mold, Judge Rhys Rowlands said Clarke had shown “a complete lack of any moral compass whatsoever”.
He added: “This was behaviour on your part.
“At the trial you portrayed yourself as being the victim, suggesting this was a drunken dalliance and you simply regretted cheating on your wife who was also asleep in the room nearby.
“The picture is an unattractive one – a man of high opinion of himself, in complete contrast with your victim and your wife. This was drunken risktaking borne out of an inflated sense of your own worth, out of sheer arrogance. Jail will be particularly difficult for you because of the nature of the offence and your occupation as a police officer.”
Earlier, the jury heard that Clarke considered the complainant “up for it”, and believed she would welcome his advances as she would be “unable to resist him”.
Bob Sastry, mitigating, said the defendant still denies raping the woman and had now lost his job, his marriage, his freedom and had been ostracised by his community.
He added: “Clearly, Mr Clarke’s life is now in tatters.”
Clarke, who showed no reaction as he was sent down, was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely and told he cannot work with vulnerable adults or children on his release from prison. appalling