Met Police officer jailed for abusing wife

Isaque Rodrigues-Leite had abused his wife before he joined the Met but his offending “escalated” when he joined the police force. 

While he was a serving officer he trapped his wife in a caravan and a bedroom, hit her with a car, and threatened her with a knife. 

During arguments, Rodrigues-Leite, based in the Roads and Transport Policing Command, told his victim that “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. 

Isaque Rodrigues-Leite (Image: Met Police)

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

The then-couple met in 2010 and married in 2014, and the coercive control offence lasted from January 1 2016 to July 21 2019. 

Though the early years of the relationship were described as “toxic”, the court was told the abuse “got really bad” when he joined the force in March 2019. 

Sentencing Rodrigues-Leite, Recorder Dyal said there was a “major escalation” in his behaviour between March and July that year. 

In April he trapped the victim 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 for the serving officer to let her out Rodrigues-Leite raised his fist at him, the court was told. 

In July that year, his wife found messages on his computer revealing he was “paying for sex with transexual prostitutes”. 

She confronted him, sparking a row in which he blockaded her in their bedroom and prevented her from leaving “by pushing her back onto the bed” and standing between her and the door. 

During a fight in the kitchen Rodrigues-Leite raised his first at her and punched a wall, again refusing to let her leave. 

The victim left the house to drive away and found Rodrigues-Leite was already in the car, the court heard. 

Prosecutor Saul Herman said Rodrigues-Leite accelerated the vehicle while she was standing in front of it and, as there was not space on either side, she jumped on the bonnet. 

Rodrigues-Leite then “drove the car back and forth” until she fell on the side road and Mr Herman said he then told her “look what you made me do”. 

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. 

She contacted police in September 2020 and Pc Rodrigues-Leite was arrested, the Met said. 

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.” 

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

During the trial Rodrigues-Leite was found not guilty of two other counts of false imprisonment and two counts of making a threat to kill.