Police sergeant accused of rape 'appeared to be on drugs' court told

A court has heard how a police sergeant charged with raping a woman whilst on duty appeared to be on drugs before the assault.

Sergeant Glenn Carabott, 40, is accused of having raped the woman while responding to a report of theft at her home in Qawra last month. 

Testifying yesterday in the compilation of evidence, Superintendent Graziella Muscat Buhagiar informed Magistrate Gabriella Vella that the accused was now under investigation by the vice squad and the cybercrime unit. She gave the court a blow by blow account of what investigators had been told by the victim, who she said was a heavy drug user who struggled to communicate due to withdrawal symptoms.

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The sergeant arrived at the woman’s home in the early hours of April 17, soon after she had reported a theft at her apartment. The court was told that the woman’s residence is known to the police as “a junkie house”, used by heavy drug users. 

As he walked in, he appeared to be high on drugs, the woman had claimed. He said she looked pretty and began to fondle himself, the court heard. The woman had asked him why the officer was not accompanied by forensic experts.

According to the woman, Carabott had then grabbed her breast. The officer was armed with a pistol and a taser but he had not reached for them at any point in the encounter. The officer had told her he made pornographic films for money and that they were shared among a select group of people.

Carabott then proceeded to her bedroom where the woman had kept papers documenting some of the items which had been stolen. As she bent over to fetch something from a low drawer, from the corner of her eye she noticed the accused was closing the bedroom door.

The victim said she knew what was coming next, as she had been sexually abused as a child and throughout much of her adult life. “She said she knows that once a man starts off, he will only stop when he is finished,” Muscat Buhagiar told the magistrate.

Although she was not threatened, the woman had then performed oral sex on the officer, explaining that this was because she had wanted it over and done with as quickly as possible. At this point, Carabott began recording the sex act on his mobile phone, the court was told. The police have submitted the video as evidence.

She ended up on her bed, despite allegedly telling Carabott that she had a sexually transmitted disease in an effort to put him off and would rather not carry on. 

“She said that she told him: ‘sir, I have been abused many times’ and that the more she used the phrase ‘sir’ the more aroused the officer appeared to get,” said the Superintendent.

The victim described Carabott as “an animal.”

Other officers who were on duty on the night of the alleged rape testified that Carabott did not file a report in the police system about the robbery and had simply gone home after he returned from the woman’s apartment. 

The woman is in hospital for treatment of an unrelated ailment and will testify at a later stage. 

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi is appearing for Carabott. Lawyer Rene Darmanin is parte civile for the alleged victim.