Northampton police constable forced underage teenage girl to perform sex act on him while on duty, court hears

A police officer forced an underage teenage girl to give him oral sex in his car while on duty after being called out to a disturbance at her home, a court heard.

PC Declan Gabriel, 28, claimed he had a "wedgie" and was rearranging his boxer shorts when the teenager suddenly put her hands down his trousers. But a court heard the serving Northamptonshire Police officer forced the victim's hand onto his crotch before pushing her head down to give him oral sex. Today, Tuesday, Gabriel went on trial accused of rape, two charges of sexual assault and misconduct in a public office at Northampton Crown Court. Prosecutor Matthew Lowe said the uniformed officer was alone when he received a call to a domestic involving the girl in 2015. He told the jury Gabriel took the victim away from her parent's home in Northampton and drove her around in his unmarked Ford Focus between 4.30am and 6.30am. But Mr Lowe said instead of taking the girl to a friend's house, he drove her to a lorry park layby where he sexually assaulted her by placing her hand over his crotch. Gabriel is accused of then driving the girl to a different la-by in a gateway near Milton Malsor crematorium where he forced her to give him oral sex. Opening the prosecution case, Mr Lowe said: "Declan Gabriel is a serving police officer here in Northamptonshire. "The prosecution case is that he was on duty in uniform, single-crewed in a police vehicle in the early hours of September 21. "He received a radio message to an address where a mother was complaining about the behaviour of her teenage daughter who had been kicked out of the house. "This defendant turned up, spoke to the mother and left the address with the girl in his police car. "That was about 4.30am. Over the next two hours throughout that time this defendant and that girl were together. "It's the prosecution case that over that two-hour period on two occasions in two separate locations this defendant has taken advantage of that girl and the situation he found himself in. "He has taken advantage by sexually assaulting her. In both locations the prosecution allege that he has taken her hand across the car and laid it over his crotch area. "And on one occasion he has coerced her into giving him oral sex. "What the prosecution say is that he has taken advantage not simply of his role as a police officer but of the position he found himself in that morning with that girl." The court heard after picking up the girl, Gabriel drove to a police station in Northampton but left her in the car while he took her iPhone inside to charge. Mr Lowe told the jury the officer tried to contact the girl's friend and even drove past the pal's house in Northampton but decided not stop because he said the lights were off. After the first attack, the teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Gabriel drove past her friend's home for a second time but again didn't stop. The officer then carried on driving out of Northampton into a "semi-rural" location, which was out of his regular patrol area, before pulling over in a gateway. Mr Lowe added: "Once he had parked up he did what he had done before, he reached over, took her hand and placed it over his penis. "When she was later interviewed she put it this way: 'I felt freaked out'. "She said she was in a state of shock and all sorts of things were going through her mind. "She simply did not know how to react or what to do. "The prosecution case is that she did not freely give her consent, she simply submitted because of the position she found herself in." The court heard Gabriel drove her back to her friend's address for a third time but stopped this time and left her at the house when the family answered. Jurors were told the girl told her friends and family some details about the incidents but didn't give a recorded police interview until a month later. In the interview, which was played to the jury of seven men and five women, the girl told how Gabriel put her hand on his crotch for a second time in the gateway. She added: "Then he undid his trousers and got his penis out. "He put his arm around my shoulders and guided me down and then he asked me to give him oral sex and cradled my head. "There was a bit of pressure with his arm, it wasn't really hard. It was around my shoulders pulling me towards his crotch. "I was definitely freaked out, I was a bit scared. I kind of had it in my head that he must have just thought I was a naughty teenage girl. "It kind of seemed like something out of a film where I was a waste of a person and he was going to do what he did. "I didn't think I was going to die but I thought what if he kills me. "I have tried to put it to the back of mind and block it out and forget about it." Asked by the female police officer conducting the interview if she wanted what happened to her to happen, the girl quietly replied: "No". Mr Lowe said the officer came up with a "ludicrous" account to explain what had happened when he was interviewed in September and November 2015. He added: "He will say, or it will be said on his behalf, that it was the girl who sexually assaulted him whilst he was adjusting his underwear in the car. "He accepted he had parked up in a gateway and then he said he got out of the car to stretch his legs. "He then put his seat back was intending just to sit there. He said by that stage he had got a wedgie. "In order to sort that out what he did was partially undid his flies and put his hand into his own boxer shorts and he said as I did it (the girl) reached over and put her hand into his boxers grabbing his penis and he pushed her away. "He denied that he had coerced her into giving him oral sex. "The prosecution say that's a ludicrous account. The prosecution say as a police officer he was terrified of any scientific or forensic results that might come back. "So he had to come up with an account that would explain away any DNA evidence that might later be found by those investigating these incidents." Gabriel, who wore a black suit with a grey tie and white shirt, studied the jury bundle carefully during the prosecution opening. The officer denies all four charges. The trial, which is expected to last a week, continues.