24 Hours in Police Custody: Leighton Buzzard rape case to feature
- By Martin Heath
- BBC News, Bedfordshire
9 December 2023
Image source, Bedfordshire Police
The case of a sexual predator who raped a woman in an alleyway will feature in a TV documentary this weekend.
The arrest of Loui Cadman by Bedfordshire Police will be shown in the Channel 4 series 24 Hours in Police Custody.
Officers discovered he had also been intimately filming his victim without her consent.
The force said the programme would show what it was doing to tackle male violence against women.
The documentary series has been following Bedfordshire Police since 2014.
Sunday’s episode features the arrest of Cadman, 25, following reports of a rape in an alleyway.
CCTV footage showed he had followed his victim after she had left a bar in Leighton Buzzard.
Cadman, of Meadow Way in the town, was arrested near the scene.
During his trial, Luton Crown Court heard the woman had become separated from her friends and had lost her mobile phone.
She had managed to leave the alleyway a few minutes after the attack and seek help from door staff who called the emergency services.
Image source, Bedfordshire Police
When police officers examined his phone, they found intimate footage of the victim along with other videos of young women.
He was jailed earlier this year[1] for more than nine years for rape, voyeurism, possession of indecent images and possession of cannabis.
Image source, 24 Hours In Police Custody
Detective Shona Birkby investigated the case and was alarmed to find intimate footage of a couple in an alleyway on Cadman’s phone.
They had no idea anyone was filming them.
She explained on the show how “a person’s level of offending has to start somewhere”.
“Voyeurism is recording a private act without the victim’s consent.
“He’s clearly a predator and he’s moved very quickly to a hands-on offence so his behaviour has escalated over a short amount of time.”
Under questioning, Cadman admitted his behaviour was disgusting and wrong, but denied he was a sexual predator.
Image source, 24 Hours in Police Custody
Det Ch Insp Michelle Lack of Bedfordshire Police said: “This episode [of the TV series] gives an insight into the work our Rape and Serious Sexual Offences team does to support victims and work with them to bring perpetrators of sexual violence and abuse to justice.
“We know that people may feel some behaviour which makes them feel unsafe or uncomfortable is not worth reporting to police – but we want to know about it.
“These patterns can escalate into serious offences, and we want to take action to stop predatory behaviour as early as we can.”
24 Hours in Police Custody will be shown on Channel 4 at 21:00 GMT on 10 December.
References
- ^ jailed earlier this year (www.bbc.co.uk)