Ex-police officer accused of sexual offences was 'needy attention seeker,' jury told

Nick Lumley QC told Teesside Crown Court ex-Cleveland Police officer David Waller is in the near impossible position of proving why sexual assault allegations from seven victims were made up,

Mr Lumley, in his closing speech to a jury on behalf of Waller, accused the prosecution of basing their case on ‘suggestion, suspicion, and sound bites’.

Waller faces allegation of sexual offences against seven young women.

He is alleged to have met victims via hobby groups and societies in the region.

Waller faces a charge of misconduct in public office for beginning a sexual relationship with a woman who reported an unrelated crime to him in his capacity as a police officer.

“We know that people can lie or make things up for all sorts of reasons,” Mr Lumley told the jury.

“Take an example of an encounter during an office party.

“The woman may say to her husband the next morning she could not have given consent, but in that moment those two people got carried away.

“Once one allegation had been made against Mr Waller and published, the case against him snowballed.

“He was in the middle of it, helpless, hapless, and hopeless, a soft target for the victims.

Mr Lumley told the jury Waller was a ‘pathetic, needy, attention seeker’, but that did not make him a criminal.

“Perhaps he was blind to the glaringly obvious in his dealings with these young women,” added Mr Lumley.

“You may think he is unlikely to make the same mistake again.

“He may certainly have been misguided, but we say he was not and is not a predatory paedophile.”

Waller, 33, of Eastleigh, Thornaby, faces a charge of rape, three charges of inciting underage girls to take part in sexual activity, three charges of meeting or attempting to meet a girl following sexual grooming, two charges of indecent assault of a child, one charge of sexual assault, and one charge of misconduct in public office.

He denies all the charges.

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdicts later this week.