Nottingham ex-teacher rape case was originally dropped

Roger Caffrey is on trial at Nottingham Crown Court for three counts of rape and 14 counts of indecent assault

A woman who alleges a former deputy head teacher raped her told a court her case was originally dropped 22 years ago.

The woman claims she was 19 when she was raped by Roger Caffrey in 1994.

Mr Caffrey is charged with three counts of rape and 14 indecent assaults in Nottingham between 1978 and 1995.

The 70-year-old - who the woman described as a "family friend" - denies all the charges.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Mr Caffrey was arrested and questioned over the rape allegation two decades ago.

The woman told the court the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Police contacted the woman again in 2013 following the start of another investigation into Mr Caffrey, but the original documents into the 1994 case had been lost.

'Violated'

A jury heard the woman attended a city school when Mr Caffrey was a teacher, although she was not a pupil of his.

The woman agreed to help Mr Caffrey with jobs at his home, which was where he raped her, the court heard.

"I'd been violated," she said. "Looking back, how immature and naive I was, it was shocking to me that somebody could do something like that.

"I try and detach myself from it because that is easier to cope with."

Michael Evans, defending Mr Caffrey, told the court his client believed "there was consensual sex".

Mr Caffrey is accused of raping two girls and touching pupils while they read out loud in class and in a store cupboard in the classroom.

Sixteen of the 17 charges against Mr Caffrey, now of Orkney, involve girls under the age of 16 - some believed to be as young as nine.

The trial continues.