Prosecutors say “manipulative” police officer Mohammed Perwaze repeatedly raped an 8-year-old girl, telling his victim: “I can love you more than your puppy ever will.”

Perwaze, who until he was charged in November worked as a police sergeant with Durham Constabulary, denies four counts of rape and 14 other charges relating to the girl — including five of indecent assault and four of sexual assault.

Sheffield Crown Court heard the girl had been “broken down” from constant attacks carried out on her by the 45-year-old after he began abusing her at the age of eight, the Northern Echo reports.

Simon Reevell QC, prosecuting, said: “By the time she was a young adult, she had quite literally been broken down by this man so he could use her for his sexual gratification because of the sexual attraction he had had for her since she was eight years old.

“On the face of it he was a respectable police officer,” he said of Perwaze, who local media reports was tasked with forging closer links between police and immigrant communities alongside the regional “racial equality council” in 2005, when he also chaired the force’s Black and Asian Police Association (BAPA).

Rotherham Child Rape Scandal: 100 Investigations into Police, ‘Potential Misconduct’ https://t.co/wodkhc7sPc — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 26, 2018

“He was clever and he was manipulative. He was violent towards her,” the prosecutor said, going on to read extracts from emails sent by Perwaze to his alleged victim.

“I can love you more than your puppy ever will,” he told the girl in one email, while in another one he said: “I will be the one person still there for you always.”

The abuse happened in two phases — the first spanning five years starting when his victim was eight, and beginning again when she was in his twenties, the jury heard.

He was also violent towards two boys from when they were each six years old until the age of 16, Reevell said, telling the court that one of the children was punched so hard by Perwaze he was “sent flying”, and beaten with a slipper to the point that he could not sit down.

The defendant, who was arrested after the girl eventually complained to police, also denies two charges of cruelty relating to the boys. He made no comment in interviews but produced four prepared statements which “amounted to absolute denials”, the prosecution said.