Married GMP officer jailed for trying to rape a woman he met in a pub

Ernesto Ceraldi, 44, left his victim thinking she would die.

Ernesto Ceraldi

A married police dog handler has been jailed after violently attacking and trying to rape a woman he met at a pub. Ernesto Ceraldi, 44, left the woman, who said she thought she would die, bloodied, and bruised after repeatedly throttling and punching her during the terrifying ordeal.

He was arrested after chasing her outside whilst fully naked and pinning her against a wall as she screamed for help and a watching neighbour shouted at him to stop.

His victim now says she is too scared to go out alone after dark as a judge sentenced him to five and a half years in jail.

Ceraldi, who at the time was a serving Greater Manchester Police officer with twenty-one years of service, was off duty and out with a group of friends on the evening of Friday, April 1st, this year, when he met the victim in a pub in Rossendale, near Bury.

They initially "enjoyed each other's company", the court heard, as they chatted, and he showed her pictures of his police dog on his phone, Preston Crown Court was told. She later invited him back to her home, and the pair, which the court heard had both consumed a "large quantity" of alcohol, had consensual sex.

That stopped when they spilt some wine on the carpet, and the woman in her forties cleaned it up. The victim said they sat drinking and chatting for a period but that at one point during the evening Ceraldi's "attitude changed".

He began demanding and forcing her to perform a sex act on him as he grabbed her by the hair and began pulling her towards him, the court was told.

He pushed her against a wall, causing a picture hanging from it to fall and smash, as he slapped her, put his hands on her throat, and squeezed using pressure described by the victim as 'horrific', David Traynor, prosecuting, said.

He punched her in the face, causing her to stumble and fall onto the sofa, where there was a struggle. Ceraldi continued to hit and grab her by the throat as she pleaded with him to stop.

The woman eventually managed to push him away, unlock her back door and run outside. However, Ceraldi, who was naked, followed and caught up with her and pinned her against a wall.

A neighbour heard her screaming, "Help me, help me", at around 1:30 am in the early hours of Saturday, April 2nd, the court heard. The police were called, and officers found Ceraldi asleep on her sofa naked with his leg inside the arm of a jacket which the court heard he "obviously thought was a pair of trousers".

The woman's face and nose were left swollen and bruised, and she also had bruises all over her body, Mr Traynor said. Blood splatters were found on various walls, with her hair extensions found scattered across the floor, having been pulled out.

Ceraldi, of no fixed address but previously of Darwen, near Blackburn in Lancashire, pleaded guilty to trying rape and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. In a victim impact statement, the victim said that Ceraldi, who had trained as a boxer, could have killed her and that his actions had "changed me and my life".

She said she was now too scared to go out online at night and had had to have more security measures installed at her home to put her at ease.

"Whilst the bruises and physical effects have healed, I don't know if the mental effects ever will," she said.

"As a police officer, I should have been able to trust him without any doubt. If I cannot trust a police officer with twenty-one years of service, who can I trust?"

"I can never forgive Mr Ceraldi for what he did," she added, saying she felt "shame and guilt" and asked herself if the ordeal was somehow her fault.

Ceraldi was previously a man of "exemplary good character" who had received commendations for his actions whilst on duty at the 2008 UEFA Cup final in Manchester. During the 2011 summer riots in Salford, the court was told.

"The actions of the defendant were out of character, isolated in nature, and engaged through what must be an aggravating feature, the substantial consumption of alcohol," Julian King, defending, said.

He said Ceraldi was "disgusted and ashamed" of his actions and was "genuinely remorseful". He told the officer, who has now resigned from his position as a Police Constable, had taken the "bold decision" to plead guilty at the first hearing at the crown court.

He said Ceraldi was "in difficulties with his relationship" at the time of the offence but was aware the "impact of his actions has had on the lives of firstly the victim, but also more widely, the effect on his wife and two adult children" who he would now be unable to support.

Judge Simon Medland QC sentenced Ceraldi, who appeared in court via video link from HMP Preston, to five years four months. He will serve half of the sentence, less his time on remand, before being released on licence.

Passing the sentence, Judge Medland said it was a "grossly serious" set of offences. He said he had no doubt that Ceraldi telling his victim he was a police officer and showing her pictures of his police dog must have "filled her with confidence."

Yet he told Ceraldi that he had "lost his self-control" whilst back at her home and that his behaviour was "aggressive, coercive and violent". "It involved considerable blunt force trauma to your victim," he said, continuing to affect the woman's personal and work life.

He said, however, that he accepted Ceraldi's remorse was genuine as he had "taken the bold and equally regrettably unusual step of fully accepting your guilt". Once released, Ceraldi must sign the sex offender's register for life and an indefinite restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim, who as a victim of a sex offence is entitled to lifelong anonymity, was made.

Following the case, Detective Inspector Carole Langhorne, from Lancashire Police's Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Team, said: "This was an appalling crime committed against a woman in a place where she was entitled to feel safe.

"The appalling and sustained violence used by Ceraldi while the victim was in her own home - somewhere she was entitled to feel safe - was particularly shocking in this case.

"This offence - committed by a man she believed she could trust - has profoundly changed her. I hope she can feel comfortable knowing that he is now behind bars. Even when Ceraldi is released, he will be subjected to the notification requirements and therefore be monitored by the authorities."

"I hope today's outcome and having the knowledge of the sensitive and professional way that we approach our investigations will encourage other sexual violence and abuse victims to come forward," she said. They will be listened to, they will be believed, and we will gather the evidence to put the perpetrator before the courts."

Howard Gough, District Crown Prosecutor with Crown Prosecution Service North West's Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit, said: "Ernesto Ceraldi conducted a vicious attack on a woman in her own home; a place where she should have been safe.

"I would like to commend her courage in coming forward and speaking about her ordeal. I hope that as Ceraldi begins this prison sentence, she can start to put the trauma behind her and move on with her life.

"The Crown Prosecution Service are committed to prosecuting those who use violence to control and abuse women and hope this woman's bravery inspires anyone who has suffered sexual or violent abuse to come forward and see their attackers brought to justice."