Greater Manchester Police officer who tried to rape woman he met in pub will not have prison sentence extended

A police officer who attempted to rape a woman he met in a pub will not have his prison sentence extended.

Ernesto Ceraldi, 44, who later resigned from Greater Manchester Police, was jailed for five years and four months at Preston Crown Court in June. Ceraldi, a married police dog handler at the time, earlier pleading guilty to attempted rape and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The court heard his victim was throttled, punched and had her hair pulled.

His jail term was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General's Office (AGO). Judges have now ruled the prison sentence was 'not unduly lenient' and won't be increased as a result.

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Lawyers representing the AGO argued at a hearing on Thursday that Ceraldi should have received an extended sentence for public protection and the five year, four months sentence was not long enough for his offending. But, refusing to increase the sentence, Lord Justice Bean said the Crown Court judge was entitled to reach the conclusion not to impose an extended sentence, and also to reflect Ceraldi's early guilty pleas in the overall term.

The court heard Ceraldi, of Darwen, Lancashire, was a police dog handler when he met his victim in a pub on April 1. He told her he was a police officer and showed her photos of his dog, before she invited him to her home in Rossendale, Lancashire.

The pair drank wine and engaged in consensual sexual activity before sitting on the sofa and talking together. The defendant’s attitude “changed all of a sudden” and he began to demand she perform a sexual act on him and grabbed her hair.

He pushed her against a wall, causing a picture to