Hampshire police ignore own officer enabling serial rapist to attack more women

[Imnobody4]

I am just so sick of this.I want police officers prosecuted.

Senior detectives allegedly declined to pass the case to the Crown Prosecution Service, blaming insufficient evidence and telling Tomkins there was a “discrepancy” in her account which raised the possibility that “you are lying”.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/cab6d051-f116-4e46-9bad-db8cf819f90e?shareToken=0b2db8f34220ea8383870dbae86409a9

A serial rapist was able to attack at least three more women after police ignored warnings from one of its own officers who was one of his victims

Bruno Sala, 39, groomed women he met on online dating apps before raping them and inviting other men to attack his victims. He was jailed at Portsmouth crown court for multiple counts of rape in November last year.

Hampshire Constabulary missed opportunities to stop Sala after Victoria Tomkins, a police officer who had been with the force for 16 years, reported being raped by him in January 2020. Sala raped at least three other women following Tomkins’s report, a Channel 4 News investigation found.

They should be sacked and have their massive police pensions withheld.

Link to the video

Link to longer more complete report

www.channel4.com/news/exclusive-police-failed-to-stop-serial-rapist-after-report-from-own-officer

Their pensions should be given to his victims

Or to a Rape Crisis Centre monthly funding like that could go a long way, they couldn't certainly put it to good use.

Grooming and coercive behaviour appear to be foreign concepts to some of our police forces.

Unless they're the ones doing it.

How bad is it that I'm not even a tiny bit surprised that this happened? We've come to expect it, haven't we?

I watched that report. It was horrendous. Poor women.

Just watched. God, yes, that's even worse. What conclusion do women viewers come to seeing that? Why would you go to/trust the police?

If they refuse to believe one of their own officers reporting rape, no wonder so few reported rapes are prosecuted.

And so much for "no realistic chance of a conviction", as he was eventually successfully charged and convicted of the rape of Victoria Tomkins.

Exactly. A fellow officer should be the most credible of witnesses. But the DCI who shaped that decision was himself a predator, the last part of the report shows. The police are themselves riddled with rapists, predators and supporters of the same.

It's a bleak outlook and since the Sarah Everard case it's deeply affected my trust in the police. I wouldn't now get out of my car if told to by a male police officer. I'd stay put with the doors locked and ring someone. However, that doesn't help me in a situation like this if you're the victim. Very frightening.

It is also concerning that he worked as a care worker and private ambulance driver,
So much for safeguarding.

Roger Wood, a detective chief inspector who oversaw the rape unit and was behind the review into Tomkins’s case, has been barred from policing after being found guilty of gross misconduct in relation to sexual relationships with junior staff.

Of course.

Well done to the officers who went against higher up officers to get the investigation opened and the conviction through, that must have been tough, all three women massively let down including the original victim also a Police officer.

Brave woman and I hope the get the full support they need.

Agree re forfeiting the pensions!