Child sex abuse trial: Victim secretly recorded detective she "didn't trust"

The 30-year-old woman — a complainant in the ongoing trial of five men and two women over grooming and sex abuse in Rotherham — told the court she felt Det Con Diane Garner was a “bad officer”.

The woman, who was made pregnant by defendant Arshid Hussain when she was 15, claims she knew Det Con Garner from her childhood and adulthood.

She said she did not feel she was a good officer and “knew” she could not trust her.

Hussain faces four sexual abuse charges against this alleged victim and two abduction charges between 1999 and 2001.

He admits he fathered a child with her but denies the charges and claims he believed she was over 18 when they met, when he was aged 24.

Sheffield Crown Court heard the witness made the secret recording on March 26, 2013, when Det Con Garner and Det Con Lee Robinson visited her at her sister’s address to discuss her complaints against Hussain and his alleged accomplices.

Mr Stephen Uttley, defending Hussain, asked why she had made the covert recording.

She said: “I previously knew Diane and knew she was a bad officer and I didn’t trust her, that’s the reason why I recorded it.

“I didn’t feel supported and I knew what they were going to do really.”

Mr Uttley asked why if she had not trusted Det Con Garnr, why had she not asked for the officer to be removed from the case.

The woman said: “I did actually say that when I decided to make my statement.

“I said I didn't want no officer in Rotherham to deal with it because Ash knew officers.”

Mr Uttley said: “What were you hoping to achieve by recording this conversation?

The witness, who cannot be named, replied: “I felt if I wouldn't have recorded it people would not believe what I said because everyone says I am a liar and blames me.

“It’s a good job I did really, I’m glad I recorded her.”

Mr Uttley said the officers had only been trying to assist the woman, but she woman said it felt like Det Con Garner had been dismissive of everything she was told.

The woman said she told the officer she could provide DNA evidence from her son to prove Hussain was the father, but was told not to, because of the upset it may cause the child.

She said she asked the visiting officers to contact police officers who had been involved with her when she was a child.

The woman told the court Det Con Garner said no police officers would come forward because they would lose their jobs.

The witness added: “It felt like every time I told her something it was like: ‘No, we can’t do that.’”

Mr Uttley questioned why the alleged victim had offered DNA evidence to the police as it had already been accepted by Hussain that he was the child’s father.

The woman that replied Det Con Garner had already known Hussain was the father from when she was being groomed any way.

The court heard the recording had been listened to by the South Yorkshire Police, the complainant’s solicitor and journalist Andrew Norfolk, who reported on the woman’s child sex abuse claims five months later in The Times newspaper.

The woman added that she believed the Independent Police Complaints Commission had also been given a copy.

Mr Uttley argued the woman was trying to manipulate the police by recording them, taking legal action against the force and Rotherham Council, and by speaking to the press.

The woman said she had believed by getting her story in the media, the police would  have taken it more seriously because on “previous times I didn’t feel really supported.”

She said the only reason police had come knocking on her door again in August 2013 was because they were aware she had spoken to The Times newspaper.

She added: “I think it worried them a bit, what’s happened in Rotherham has reflected on them as a whole force, certain officers that didn’t do things right reflected badly on them as well.”

Mr Uttley revealed South Yorkshire Police had contacted The Times and asked them not to publish the woman’s story prior to publication.

The woman added: “I didn’t think the police would do a good job (of the investigation), it’s as simple as that, that's why I went to the media.”

She added she had received no payment from media interviews she had given and had turned any financial offers down.

Hussain denies 29 charges. The trial continues.