Jailed Met officer’s abuse against his wife ‘escalated’ when he joined the force

A former police officer has been jailed for abusing his wife with violence which ‘escalated when he joined the Met’.

His wife told the court she didn’t ‘want another Sarah Everard’ after suffering abuse from former PC Isaque Rodrigues-Leite for years.

Rodrigues-Leite trapped his wife in a caravan and a bedroom, hit her with a car, and threatened her with a knife in a campaign of abuse.

Rodrigues-Leite, who worked in the Roads and Transport Policing Command, told his wife ‘no one will believe you because I am a police officer’.

He also repeatedly held her arms down, ‘made fists’ at her, and threatened to hurt her.

On Thursday at Croydon Crown Court, Recorder Daniel Dyal sentenced him to two years and three months imprisonment.

The couple, who married in 2014, had a ‘toxic’ period in their early relationship before the offences began in 2016.

The court was told the abuse worsened when he joined the force in March 2019.

In April 2019, Rodrigues-Leite trapped his wife in a caravan during a holiday with another family, after she found messages suggesting he had been unfaithful.

A witness intervened when he heard banging on the vehicle door, and when he shouted at Rodrigues-Leite to release her, raised his fist at him, the court was told.

Other instances of abuse included driving a car erratically as his victim clung onto the bonnet, before she fell on the road.

In a witness impact statement read to the court, the victim said that when a police car drives past her house she now fears Rodrigues-Leite has ‘said something’ to his colleagues.

She said: ‘I felt it was shameful when I had a husband who was a police officer who was abusing me. I don’t want another Sarah (Everard) dead.

‘In my mind, I did the right thing – if talking about it will help someone else not be in the same situation, I will be glad about that.’

She added that she now has depression, received counselling, and is on medication for anxiety.

Rodrigues-Leite was previously found guilty of four counts of false imprisonment, two counts of common assault, one count of criminal damage, and one of coercive control that caused her to fear violence would be used against her on at least two occasions.

He was found not guilty of two other counts of false imprisonment and two counts of making a threat to kill.

Detective Superintendent Christina Jessah, from Roads and Transport Policing, 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.’

Last December he was dismissed from the force by a misconduct panel and banned from re-joining.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.