A serving Metropolitan Police officer who falsely imprisoned and beat a woman has been jailed.
PC Isaque Rodrigues-Leite, attached to the Roads and Transport Policing Command (RTPC), also used coercion, control, and regular threats and intimidation in his offending against the woman between 2016 and 2019.
A judge on Thursday ruled Rodrigues-Leite did pick up a knife and threaten to kill the victim and himself among his offences, as he sentenced him to two years and three months imprisonment at Croydon Crown Court.
In another incident, the hearing heard how the Met Police officer accelerated his car towards the woman, forcing her to jump on its bonnet. He drove backwards and forwards for a few minutes, eventually causing the woman to fall off, leaving her lying in the road, the court was told.
The judge caveated that the suspected low speeds would have meant her injuries were “not significant” – but he described it as “nonetheless a serious incident”.
Passing sentence, Mr Recorder Daniel Dyal said: “I’m satisfied that you were aggressive and highly volatile… your temper was so bad at this time that you made her fear violence would be used.”
In an impact statement read to the court, the victim said: “It got to the point where I was terrified to leave my house… It’s caused me to also feel scared of police officers.”
The hearing was also told of multiple occasions when Rodrigues-Leite would lock the woman in rooms and prevent her from leaving for a few minutes.
Following a previous 10-day trial, Rodrigues-Leite was found guilty on 10 November of four counts of false imprisonment, two counts of assault by beating, one count of coercive and controlling behaviour and one count of criminal damage.
The woman contacted police in September 2020 after which Rodrigues-Leite, who joined the Met in 2019, was arrested.
He was suspended from duty while the investigation took place and was dismissed from the force at a misconduct hearing held in December.
Detective superintendent Christina Jessah, from the Roads and Transport Policing Unit, said: “The nature of this officer’s offending was abhorrent. We do not want people who commit such offences working in the Met and our professional standards investigators will continue to be relentless in their pursuit of officers who let down their colleagues and Londoners.”
