A woman has received an £8,000 payout after a police officer told her and her husband to meet a suspected rapist to “set the record straight”.
Officers told her “nothing would come of it”, she says, and dismissed concerns that her drink had been spiked at a bar.
Two Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers were sent to see the woman, from Wigan, after she woke up naked and in pain in a strange house in July 2019 and
“I tried to explain what had happened as best I could as I still couldn’t make sense of what was going on and I was still feeling dizzy, even when officers arrived,” she said.
“I told them I thought I had been drugged and raped.”
She said the female officer took her aside and said reporting a rape meant “it would be over mine and my family’s heads for quite a while” and “nothing would come of it” in court.
The woman said that in front of everyone the officer told her husband: “I recommend you go to him (the alleged attacker) and see if you can set the record straight.”
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“I felt like I had been treated disgustingly, I was just a number, not a person,” she said.
“My sexual violence support adviser says it’s the worst case she has ever dealt with. I have felt like giving up, it’s affected not just me but the whole family.”
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The woman called police the next day and insisted her case was properly investigated.
After an 11-hour wait she was examined and gave a statement, but says police have since given her little update on the case.
An out-of-court compensation settlement has now been reached with GMP.
The woman’s treatment was a “shocking error of judgement” and officers “completely failed in their duty of care”, said Nicola Bailey-Gibbs from Hudgell Solicitors.
She said it was the third case in two years in which GMP had paid damages to clients of her firm over the way sexual assault allegations have been investigated.
A five-figure sum was paid in 2020 to a woman who was mocked in emails between officers after she made a rape complaint.
Earlier this year, a payout was also agreed with a homeless woman over claims the force had failed to properly investigate an assault.
In that case, it was alleged that if police had properly investigated they would have found a link to four other alleged sexual assaults involving homeless women.
GMP said a 43-year-old man had been arrested in the drink-spiking case and that an investigation by Wigan CID was ongoing.
A Professional Standards Branch investigation into the case is on hold until the criminal probe is over.
The force added: “We always strive to place victim care at the heart of everything we do and we expect our officers and staff to uphold the highest standards, and whenever we fall short of expectations it is important it is reported so we can take appropriate action wherever necessary.
“We will endeavour to keep the victim in this case informed of our progress in both these matters.”
