A Metropolitan Police officer has been acquitted of two counts of misconduct in public office after being accused of sharing footage from two rape cases. PC Adam Aspinall Da Encarnacao, 33, from Buckinghamshire, was attached to the Met's Sapphire unit, which deals with rapes and serious sexual assaults. He had pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The jury at Southwark Crown Court took just under two hours to clear him. The allegations involved sharing CCTV images of Natalie Shotter, who was orally raped and killed on a park bench in Southall, west London, in July 2021, and footage relating to an unidentified woman raped in an alleyway in December 2021.
The court heard that police did not find the footage when they seized Aspinall Da Encarnacao's personal devices after his ex-girlfriend, Maria Niebla, claimed he had shared it with her. Images of three dead people acquired during his work were found on his personal hard drive, but no action was taken regarding this discovery, and it did not form part of the charges.
Niebla met the officer in February 2021 on a dating app and moved into the family home where he lived with his parents in July 2021. When the relationship ended a year later, she alleged he had subjected her to controlling and abusive behaviour, which he denies. He was not charged in relation to these allegations.
Natalie Shotter's mother, Dr Cas Shotter Weetman, expressed disappointment after the verdict, saying: 'We are bitterly disappointed with the outcome. It was absolutely horrendous to have to relive what happened to Natalie over and over again throughout the court process. Yet again we find ourselves dealing with profound sadness.'
