A young woman who said she was sexually assaulted by a police officer conducting a welfare check told a jury she considered “backing away” from the case because she was “so scared”.
The woman, who is in her twenties and cannot be identified for legal reasons, also expressed her shock that a male officer had been sent to her hotel room to check on her wellbeing after she fled there to escape her husband, who contacted police to report her missing following an argument.
It was then that Metropolitan Police Constable Rudvelle Walters is alleged to have put his hand into the woman’s underwear after earlier saying he would only leave her hotel room if her friend, who was also present, gave him a kiss.
The 48-year-old denies one count of sexually assaulting the woman while carrying out the welfare check at the Best Western hotel in Wembley, north-west London, where she was staying on February 5 2019.
Giving evidence from behind a screen at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, the Polish woman hit back at claims from defence counsel Robert Morris that the incident did not happen.
She said: “Sir, do you believe that I have spent nearly three years going to interviews, reliving the stress in the courtroom, to be talking gibberish about something that never happened?
“At the very beginning of the case I swore on the Bible that everything I was going to say is true.
“So you can’t tell me that it didn’t happen, because it did happen – otherwise I wouldn’t be here now.”
The witness also told Mr Morris she considered withdrawing from the case.
She added: “Your client put his hand under my knickers and my shorts.
“If it wasn’t true, I would have backed away from this a long time ago.
“I have considered doing it anyway because I was very scared.
“So surely I would have let go of it if it wasn’t true.
“The only thing keeping me here is the fact it might happen to your wife, sister or your daughter.”
The witness also said her case would have been proven had Walters’ body-worn camera been switched on.
The woman said she feared that Walters was not a police officer, but a man sent by her husband following their argument.
She said: “He (Walters) said he needs to come in and speak to me … I was very uncomfortable.”
Walters, of Hazelwood Close in Luton, denies the charge.
The trial continues.
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