'I'm sorry', jailed ex cop tells victim he molested as he is barred from policing

A jailed former cop serving time for attempting to rape a woman he met in a pub has told a disciplinary hearing of his 'remorse and sympathy' for his victim.

Ernesto Ceraldi, 44, a married police dog handler, was jailed for five years and four months at Preston Crown Court in June, after he pleaded guilty to attempted rape and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He left the woman, who said she thought she was going to die, bloodied and bruised after repeatedly throttling and punching her.

Today (Wednesday) Ceraldi, who has resigned from GMP, offered no mitigation for his crimes at a disciplinary hearing where Chief Constable Stephen Watson banned him from ever having another job in policing because of his 'unlawful and immoral and reprehensible' actions.

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Ceraldi, who at the time was a serving GMP officer with 21 years service, was off duty and out with a group of friends on the evening of Friday, April 1, this year when he met the victim in a pub in Rossendale, near Bury.

They chatted and he showed her pictures of his police dog on his phone, his sentencing hearing at Preston Crown Court was told in June. She later invited him back to her home and the pair, who the court heard had both consumed a 'large quantity' of alcohol, had consensual sex.

That stopped when they spilled some wine on the carpet and the woman, who was in her 40s, got up to clean it up. The victim said Ceraldi's 'attitude changed'.

He began demanding and trying to force her to perform a sex act on him as he grabbed her by the hair and began pulling her towards him, the court was told. He pushed her against a wall, causing a picture to fall and smash, as