Guilty: Hannah Notley, 30, told an alleged rape victim it was her fault CPS has dropped the case



A policewoman was jailed yesterday after lying to bosses and an alleged rape victim that prosecutors were not going to press charges.

In fact, PC Hannah Notley had not even passed the case file to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Notley, who had taken on detective duties as a sexual offences-trained officer at Essex Police CID, was assigned to the case in July 2011.

The alleged rapist was arrested and interviewed, and his mobile phone and computer examined.

But when Notley was later asked for a progress report, she told a superior the CPS had dropped it.

It was then logged on the police system as needing ‘no further action’ and Notley even told the alleged victim that prosecution lawyers had decided to drop the case, despite knowing it had never been passed to them.

Yesterday, the 30-year-old, from Benfleet in Essex, broke down in tears as she was jailed for four months at Southwark Crown Court, in London, having already pleading guilty to a charge of misconduct in public office.

Prosecutor Zoe Martin said: ‘She falsely informed her superiors and the victim of the case that the CPS had advised that no further action be taken against the suspect when in fact no file had been sent to the CPS, no such advice had been received.’

The court heard Notley even gave superiors the name of the CPS lawyer who had taken the decision, which was also a lie.

In February last year, Notley spoke to the complainant, telling her that the CPS had dropped the case because she had reported it too late so there was no physical evidence.

Miss Martin said this was a blow to the complainant, adding: ‘She was clearly upset because it implied that the decision to some extent was her fault for reporting the rape late.

She failed to correct the assumption of her superiors at Essex Police that the case had been investigated and passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the court heard ‘On the evening that she was telephoned by Miss Notley to say that there was no further action, she tried to take her own life. ‘She says that because of Miss Notley’s actions, the man she states raped her is walking round the streets.’ The matter only came to light after an independent adviser allocated to the complainant pursued the matter and it transpired that the CPS had never been sent the file. Notley told the adviser she would ‘chase’ prosecutors. When she realised the truth was coming out in April last year, she called her professional standards department to confess. Guilty: Hannah Notley pictured at an earlier hearing The rape allegation was re-investigated and the alleged perpetrator was charged. He is to stand trial in May. Judge Alistair McCreath said: ‘You let down the police. You let down the wider public, but in particular you let down the complainant. ‘You looked her in the eye and you told her things that were untrue and you knew were untrue. ‘That was a very cruel thing to do.’ Allan Compton, defending, said Notley was depressed at the time and had had a breakdown. She had split from her fiance weeks before their wedding, and later suffered a miscarriage.