Women targeted by police officers who ‘abused the badge’

Catherine believes it was part of a pattern of emotional manipulation designed to stop her leaving.

She said Harvey threatened to take his own life on several occasions if she left him, including once during a phone call while she was at work.

“I called the police immediately, then I drove back to the house and I was in bits,” she said. “I honestly thought I’d open the door and find him dead.

“The police were there and they were just about to bash the door in when he calmly opened it wrapped in a towel and he said, ‘What’s the problem officer? I’ve just been in the shower’.

“I felt like this hysterical mess who’d made the whole thing up. But when you’re in it, you’re not thinking straight.”

During years of emotional blackmail, Catherine described how Harvey had faked an anaphylactic shock and threatened to jump out of a moving car.

She eventually left him, but it was another six years before she filed a police report.

Explaining her hesitation, she said: “Who is going to believe me over a detective on the sex offenders’ unit?”

Harvey was arrested in 2023 and was jailed earlier this year. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years after admitting coercive and controlling behaviour and the unauthorised use of police computers. He was cleared of three counts of rape.

Lancashire Constabulary described Harvey’s behaviour as “abhorrent” and said it had “no place in policing”.

The force said it remained committed to protecting women and girls.

The BBC understands another woman complained to the force about Harvey before he met Catherine but was told he had not committed an offence.

Lancashire Constabulary declined to comment, citing an ongoing complaints process.