A situation with the police (trigger warning r*pe). Any police officers about?

[TheDrswife]

Nc for this.

a good friend of my DD was arrested a year ago on suspicion of rape of someone she doesn’t know. Absolute shock for the whole friendship group and DD pulled back from him while this investigation went on. He then told her the whole case had been dropped and they rekindled their friendship. He spends a lot of time at her flat.

Fast forward to last night when two police officers turned up at my DD flat looking for him. She didn’t answer the door at first because she was scared stiff (alone in her flat, anxiety issues and never been involved with the police before). They started banging at the door heavily and she then let them in. They said it was a good job she had because they were about to force entry, I.e. smash the door in.

They fairly aggressively questioned her about his whereabouts, told her repeatedly she’d be in serious trouble if she was hiding him (obvs wasn’t) and searched the flat top to bottom. She was fine with this. They then left after being given his address and said not to contact him. She’s since found out that last year he was
Eventually RUI (released under investigation). The case has not been dropped. DD told her flatmate what was going on but forgot to tell her not to contact the friend so she did and friend called DD and she said he was eerily calm about the whole thing. Police haven’t reached him yet despite his address being 5/10 mins from DD.

So my questions are -

how did they know to turn up at DDs flat?

did they have any authority to force entry?

why haven’t they seen him yet? When they were pretty bloody keen to find him and DD gave them his address.

TIA!

I'm not a PO but didn't want your thread to go unanswered.

I think the police must have turned up at your flat because her friend has previously given them her address, or told them her name and the police did the rest.

The didn't force entry, she let them in. They just said that they WOULD force entry if she didn't let them in. It's a get out clause for them really. I don't think they can ordinarily force entry without a warrant unless it's a welfare check.

They might not have had a chance to go round his address if they had an emergency to deal with. Also, although he says they haven't been round, how would you know if he's telling the truth? Bearing in mind he was arrested on suspicion of rape he's not exactly the most trustworthy of men is he?

I'd advise your dd not to get involved, not to tell her flatmate anything more, and not to contact the man. I'd be worried about the potential of being charged with perverting the course of justice. Plus he doesn't sound very nice anyway.

Thank you! Yes she’s not having anything to do with him at the moment. He’s still texting as normal and keeps trying to call so obviously hasn’t been arrested.

Why would they be so keen to find him??

He’s a liar.

He lied about being released under investigation, he could very well be lying about the police having not got to him yet (he’s hardly going to be advertising the fact he’s been finally charged with rape now is he), he could have lied to the police about his address and/or the nature of his relationship with your daughter.

Your DD’s was probably not the first address they visited looking for him, it’s probably well known that he spends a lot of time at your DD’s flat and someone else gave the police her address.

Very convenient for him that he got the heads up from your DD and her mate though.

You should encourage your daughter to disengage from this guy. Not being charged does NOT mean he is innocent. What real reason does a woman to have to lie about rape when even women who are telling the truth are disbelieved, ostracised and called liars.

I know - DD is really annoyed with herself for not telling her flatmate not to contact him.

Yes, I have.

They will know his address but if he know they are looking for him it’s likely he isn’t there.

they probably want him for something else he’s done or been accused of doing.

That’s what I think @Octavia64. Someone else has made a complaint. By the way they acted with DD they are certainly very keen to find him.

So the flatmate has inadvertently let him know the police were looking for him?

They can get his historical location from his phone, then piece it together,

Hello OP
I'm a police officer.

They would have been given the address by him or someone else as someone he often spends time with (an associate)
Someone suggested tracing his phone location, but it's not that accurate and they wouldn't be able to pin a flat number based on phone location.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/section/17

Here are our main powers of entry under S.17 of PACE - these are most commonly relied upon and don't need warrants to enter.

We can't know why they didn't go there, maybe they'd tried already and he didn't answer so didn't go there again immediately, maybe they wanted to do some more checks.

Good luck to you and your daughter in maintaining some distance with him

I mean the police aren’t stupid, how else do they find people?

They will be aware of the areas/people he contacts from his phone data, from CCTV, from other sources of intelligence eg someone could have told the police he might be at your daughter’s

Either way, it should indicate to you that the suspect is downplaying what is going on to your daughter. And she seems to be super naive that a dropped case equals innocence. If he was truly innocent the victim would have been arrested for making a false report.

It's a bit concerning that your DD resumed a friendship with him, had him round her flat regularly and is still taking his calls.

The murderer of Grace Millane was very calm when he told the police a pack of lies to "assist" them when they were initially investigating her disappearance.

I know it's difficult when it's someone you've known a long time and trusted so you can't imagine/don't want to believe it's true, but it's better to make the sad decision to end the friendship rather than risk being his next victim. Most rape cases are dropped simply because it's a very difficult offence to prove, not because there wasn't a rape.

How will the police view it if they had specifically told OP’s dd not to contact the ‘friend’ but he was contacted anyway? This essentially warned him that the police were looking for him. At what point does this become interfering with a police investigation?

Thank you so much for this - much appreciated.

They won't be that much put out to be honest.
We're used to arrest attempts being unsuccessful and therefore tipping off the suspect that they're wanted, ring doorbells not very for that!!

Unfortunately we accept it's a risk.
This is my personal take on it, if it was an arrest attempt for something more immediate risk level (like murder) then they may have stayed with the witness while someone else went round to the other addresses to stop them informing him.

I guess we’ll never know…..