‘PC raped girl after joining force to get keys to sweet shop’

A POLICEMAN raped a 13year-old girl after joining the force to ‘gain the keys to a sweet shop’ – allowing him to exploit vulnerable children, a court heard.

Ian Naude, 30, was working as a constable with Cheshire Police at the same time as he is accused of operating as a ‘prolific interview groomer’.

Jurors were yesterday told how Neale, who admits a string of child sex offences, would gain the trust of young girls by posing online as a 15year-old boy called Jake Green.

In October last year, the PC was called out to a domestic incident where he took down the details of his alleged victim, who lived at the address. Three days later he returned to pick the girl up and took her to a quiet spot in his car, where he raped and sexually assaulted her – filming some of attack on his phone, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Naude admits sexual intercourse and activity with a child but claims it was consensual.

The jury were shown some of the mobile phone footage, which Owen Edwards, prosecuting, said showed the face of a ‘sad, scared girl’ rather than a ‘consenting woman’.

‘She had been groomed by a police officer who was experienced in the art of manipulating, pressurising and even blackmailing young girls into performing sexual acts for his perverted pleasure,’ Mr Edwards told the court.

Detectives began investigating Neale after the girl told her family she had been raped – and discovered the alleged assault was just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of his crimes.

Mr Edwards added: ‘Naude is a committed paedophile who had been targeting young girls on the internet for a considerable period.

‘Shockingly it emerged that he had joined the police with the intention of exploiting the access he would gain to vulnerable young girls. In essence, he was hoping to gain the keys to a sweet shop.’

He said Naude, of Market Drayton in Shropshire, was ‘obsessed’ with taking the virginity of teenage girls – making them call him ‘Daddy’.

The police officer is said to have persuaded his victims to undress and sometimes perform sexual acts on camera, before sending them intimate pictures and videos of himself.

As well as denying rape and sexual assault, Naude is defending four charges of attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence and one of arranging a child sex offence, relating to five complainants aged between 12 and 15.

Mr Edwards told the jury: ‘ His defence is that there were limits to his depravity, you will have to decide where the truth lies.’

As well as admitting sexual activity with a child, Naude pleaded guilty to two counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child, 14 counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, four counts of making indecent photos of a child, six counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act, two counts of misconduct in public office and one count of possessing indecent photos of a child.

The trial, which is expected to last around three weeks, continues.

‘Made teenage girls call him Daddy’