A Hertfordshire police officer who is on trial accused of raping a child said he cried when he was told that allegations had been made against him, a court heard.

James Ford, 31, is charged with 10 counts of sexual abuse against a girl under 13, which are said to have happened between 2019 and 2021.

The defendant, formerly of Bishop’s Stortford, is also accused of doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice, in that he “deliberately wiped his phone by factory resetting his Samsung Mobile phone”.

Watford Observer: Stock image of police. Credit: PAStock image of police. Credit: PA (Image: PA)

Ford denies all of the charges.

In a first interview with police, read during his trial at Cambridge Crown Court, Ford said he was an intervention officer at Hertfordshire Constabulary.

When asked about his reaction to the allegations, he said: “I got upset, I cried.”

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He added that he did not know why the girl would make the allegations.

Asked about his phone, he said he had dropped it and it turned off.

He said he was talking on the phone and “then in a state of shock… I dropped my phone, it hit the floor, I couldn’t turn it back on”.

He said that he plugged it in to charge “for a couple of minutes then I could turn it back on and the home screen was different”, adding that it “came up with all the initial set-up stuff”.

Watford Observer: James Ford is now under trial. Credit: PAJames Ford is now under trial. Credit: PA (Image: PA)

Prosecutor Isobel Ascherson, reading from an agreed facts document, said Ford has no previous convictions.

The 10 sexual offence charges include four of rape, four of sexual assault and two of causing or inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Hertfordshire Constabulary has declined to comment on the case until it has concluded.

The trial continues.

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