Greater Manchester Police dog handler jailed for 'horrific' sex attack

Greater Manchester Police officer Ernesto Ceraldi attacked the woman after meeting her in a Rossendale pub

A police dog handler who throttled and punched a woman while trying to rape her in her home has been jailed.

Greater Manchester Police officer Ernesto Ceraldi attacked the woman after meeting her in a Rossendale pub in April, Preston Crown Court heard.

She tried to escape but he chased her while naked and continued attacking her until a neighbour intervened.

Admitting attempted rape and assault, the 44-year-old was sentenced to five years and four months in prison.

The court heard Ceraldi, who has since resigned from the force, met the woman on 1 April and was invited back to her home, where they drank wine and he showed her photographs of his police dog.

'Who can I trust?'

Prosecuting, David Traynor QC said the woman described how Ceraldi's attitude "changed all of a sudden" and he demanded she perform a sex act and grabbed her hair.

He said Ceraldi, of no fixed address, pushed her against a wall, causing a picture to fall and smash, and put his hand around her throat, adding: "The pressure was horrific, she nearly stopped breathing."

He said the naked officer repeatedly punched the woman and then pursued her as she tried to escape, but a neighbour heard her screaming and came to help her.

Ceraldi then went back inside, where police found him sleeping naked on the sofa, with his leg through the arm of a jacket.

In a statement, the woman said as Ceraldi had been a police officer, she "should have been able to trust him without a shadow of a doubt".

"If I cannot trust a police officer with 21 years of service, who can I trust?" she said.

She added that while her injuries had healed, she did not know "if the mental effects ever will".

"I can no longer go out and return home after dark on my own," she said.

"Someone must come into the house with me to put me at ease."

'Genuine fear'

Julian King, defending, said Ceraldi, who had a wife and two adult children, had been commended for his work at the 2008 Uefa Cup final and in the Salford riots in 2011.

He said the dog handler's "isolated" actions were "out of character" and had been aggravated by "the substantial consumption of alcohol".

Sentencing Ceraldi, Judge Simon Medland QC said the former officer's actions had been "aggressive and coercive and violent" and he had used his job to "fill the victim with confidence".

"It terrified the victim and she was in genuine fear for her life," he said.

However, he added that he believed Ceraldi had shown genuine remorse and said a "very significant" feature of the case was that he pleaded guilty at a plea and trial preparation hearing, having previously denied the offences.

Ceraldi was also told he would be subject to sexual offence notification requirements for the rest of his life and handed a restraining order.

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