Northamptonshire Police constable forced underage teenage girl to perform sex act on him while on duty, court hears

PC Declan Gabriel, 28, claimed he had a “wedgie” and was rearranging his boxer shorts when the teenager suddenly put her hands down his trousers.

But Northampton Crown Court heard the serving Northamptonshire Police officer forced the victim’s hand on to him before making her perform a sex act.

Today, Tuesday, Gabriel went on trial accused of rape, two charges of sexual assault and misconduct in a public office at Northampton Crown Court.

Prosecutor Matthew Lowe said the uniformed officer was alone when he received a call to a domestic involving the girl in 2015.

He told the jury Gabriel took the victim away from her parents’ home in Northampton and drove her around in his unmarked Ford Focus between 4.30am and 6.30am.

But Mr Lowe said instead of taking the girl to a friend’s house, he drove her to a lorry park layby where he sexually assaulted her.

Gabriel is accused of then driving the girl to a different lay-by in a gateway near Milton Malsor crematorium where he again sexually assaulted her.

Opening the prosecution case, Mr Lowe said: “Declan Gabriel is a serving police officer here in Northamptonshire.

“The prosecution case is that he was on duty in uniform, single-crewed in a police vehicle in the early hours of September 21.

“He received a radio message to an address where a mother was complaining about the behaviour of her teenage daughter who had been kicked out of the house.

“This defendant turned up, spoke to the mother and left the address with the girl in his police car.

“That was about 4.30am. Over the next two hours throughout that time this defendant and that girl were together.

“It’s the prosecution case that over that two-hour period on two occasions in two separate locations this defendant has taken advantage of that girl and the situation he found himself in.

“He has taken advantage by sexually assaulting her.

“What the prosecution say is that he has taken advantage not simply of his role as a police officer but of the position he found himself in that morning with that girl.”

The court heard Gabriel later drove her back to her friend’s address and left her at the house.

Jurors were told the girl told her friends and family some details about the incidents but didn’t give a recorded police interview until a month later.

Gabriel denies all four charges. The trial, which is expected to last a week, continues.