Met police officer 'tied up victim and threatened to stab her', court hears, as he faces 13 counts of rape

6 February 2024, 14:03

A former Met police officer who is facing 13 counts of rape has been accused of tying up a woman and threatening to "slit" her while he was on the force.

Cliff Mitchell, 24, is charged with six counts of rape on a girl, including three said to have taken place when she was under 13. These attacks are said to have taken place between 2014 and 2017.

He is also charged with seven counts of rape against a woman between 2020 and 2023. He was a serving police officer for "the latter part" of the alleged assaults, prosecutors said.

The woman is said to have got into a car with Mitchell, where he is accused of telling her that he would stab her and another person in the vehicle if she tried to run away.

"I don't care about my life any more, you've met the devil," he is said to have told her.

When the woman said she was feeling sick, he also told her: "'If you throw up in the car, I'm gonna slit your belly for every second you throw up'," prosecutor Catherine Farrelly told Croydon Crown Court on Monday.

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The woman, whose hands were bound by cable ties, got out of the car to be sick and managed to run away, the court heard.

The allegations came to light when the woman, "distraught and scared", and with her hands bound with cable ties, was seen running through traffic.

She was screaming: "He held a knife up to me, I'm so scared".

A female motorist hid the woman in her car. Another passerby who came over to help them said that her hands were tied.

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Among the three counts of rape on a child, three state that there were at least 30 other occasions where the girl may have been similarly assaulted.

Mitchell is also charged with breaching a non-molestation order and two counts of kidnapping.

He denies all charges, which he says are fabricated.