HUDDERSFIELD EX-POLICE OFFICER CONVICTED OF MULTIPLE RAPES AND ASSAULT
A woman has spoken out after a former police officer was convicted of raping and beating her and another woman.The 29-year-old childcare worker, who does not wish to be named, told ExaminerLive how she suffers from anxiety after her ex-boyfriend Matthew Essex raped and beat her.
Today (Friday), a jury of seven women and five men took several hours to unanimously find him guilty of seven offences following a trial at Leeds Crown Court.
The 37-year-old dad, of College Avenue, Lindley, Huddersfield, was convicted of: three counts of rape; two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm; one count of false imprisonment and one further charge.
Essex's sentencing was adjourned to July 8 pending the outcome of a report to assess whether he is a danger to the public.
He has pleaded guilty to three charges of assault by beating in relation to the woman and will be sentenced for those offences together with the offences he was convicted of today.
He was subject to a suspended sentence for theft when he committed the offences.
Essex was returned to custody at the end of today's hearing.
The victim, from Rastrick, was in a casual relationship with Essex for around ten months a few years ago.
She described the first traumatic incident, stating: "He would just constantly want to know where I was, what I was doing, he'd check my phone daily.
The time he raped me was because he checked my phone and it showed on my locations that I'd been somewhere in Rastrick.
I mustn't have told him in detail where I was.
That's the night he raped me [downstairs in his house].
He made me lay in bed [upstairs] next to his son afterwards.
Then because I was crying, he dragged me back downstairs by my hair while his son watched." She recounted what happened downstairs, saying: "He raped me again, beat me up, stamped all over me, dragged me back to bed, hid my keys, hid my phone, locked me in his house all night until the morning when he knew that my mum and dad would come looking for me.
That's when he let me out and I went home." She added that Essex's son did not witness the rape but 'would have heard all the commotion'.
She also stated: "He told me it was my fault and nobody would believe me if I said what had happened and his son would stick up for him and whatever else." After escaping the house, she went to the police and a rape clinic.
She described how Essex later sent her an email threatening to commit suicide and wanting to explain something to her face.
She described the following year of harassment, stating: "He beat me up daily over the course of a year." Regarding the verdicts, she said: "Good.
The best that it could have been.
It's been a rollercoaster.
It's emotionally drained me - it's taken over two years of my life." She described the trauma of giving evidence: "Worst thing I've ever done in my life.
Horrible.
I had a curtain around me and about five breaks - I was having panic attacks.
It has caused me to have anxiety, and I needed sleeping tablets due to constant jumping.
I've always been confident, but since all this my anxiety is through the roof.
It broke me, I had a breakdown." Nonetheless, she felt proud of her fight for justice and hopes her children will remember her bravery.
