Jury out as ex-police officer faces sex assault and indecency charges

Raymond Wild, who was a serving officer in Hartlepool for about four years, is alleged to have abused the child after he left the police to open a shop.

His alleged female victim came forward years later after confiding in her first boyfriend, and two colleagues.

The alleged victim told a jury at Teesside Crown Court she had confronted Wild years later when she was an adult.

She said Wild put his head in his hands, saying he hoped ‘this day’ would never come.

Wild is alleged to have told the victim he thought she enjoyed what he did to her.

Matthew Morgan, defending, said: “Mr Wild is vehement in his denials that any abuse took place.

“His account of the meeting is that the victim told him she had been seeing a mental health nurse, and had been discussing her various problems. Mr Wild put it to her she may have been abused as a child.”

Mr Morgan said the alleged victim had created a ‘false memory’.

“Having made the allegation, she was stuck with it,” Mr Morgan added.

“There was no going back once other people became involved.

“She was stuck with the position she created.

“Why not go to the police there and then instead of years later?”

The court heard Wild could not say why the alleged victim would make up her story against him.

Mr Morgan said: “He is a man of 62, and has never committed any offence.

“Mr Wild joined the police at 17 as a cadet, served for four years before leaving honourably.

“Since then he has worked hard to support his family. His good character goes to his credit in two ways. He is not a man given to lying, and he has no propensity to commit any offences, let alone sexual ones.”

Wild, now of Heybridge, Maldon, Essex, denies five charges of sexual assault of a child, and he denies two charges of indecency with a child.