Accused officer ‘would not take no for answer’

A BUSINESSWOMAN who claims she was raped by a police officer told a court ‘he would not take no for an answer’.

Police Constable David Longden-Thurgood, of The Coppice, Waterlooville, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court.

The victim, a mother in her 30s, said she was raped at her Hampshire home after the pair met on the dating app Bumble.

The court heard the pair arranged to meet up after they exchanged a series of sexualised messages on WhatsApp.

In one message, the complainant asked ‘want to come spoon me?’ before adding that the defendant ‘would make an incredible big spoon’.

But she added in a further message: ‘I wouldn’t want any funny business though.’

The trial heard the pair went on to discuss their sexual preferences and sent photos to each other partially naked – with the defendant sending her a photo of his genitals.

The complainant told the court: ‘We had a good conversation and I liked the tone of the conversation so I saw some potential.’

The court heard that the defendant sent her a message saying: ‘It’s good to know that you have a good sex drive like me.’

She replied: ‘But that’s not what I am all about, you do see that don’t you?’

The complainant told the court: ‘I went on to Bumble to look for a relationship, not just someone to have sex with.

‘There was a large degree of sexual content in those messages, I think that was me looking for reassurance that this was not just what this was going to be.’

Longden-Thurgood, 48, visited the complainant at her home and the pair sat on her ’cuddle sofa’ with her legs over his, the court heard.

The complainant said they chatted and they started kissing before they began to watch a Netflix TV series called Outcry.

She said that she took her bra off under her T-shirt and carried on kissing but as he put his hand down towards her jeans, she told him: ‘I am not having sex with you tonight.’

The complainant said she then suggested they go upstairs to ‘spoon’ and she led the way to her bedroom but she told him ‘no funny business’ to which he laughed and said ‘OK’.

She said that they cuddled in bed and the kissing became ‘passionate’ before she took off her T-shirt and knickers.

The complainant said: ‘He was touching me. I was not touching him, through the entire encounter I never touched his penis or any part of his torso.’

She said he performed oral sex on her to which she consented but denied that she performed it on him.

She said he then penetrated her and added: ‘I had already told him before we were not having sex, I definitely said it in the bedroom.

‘He didn’t take no for an answer and at this point I was concerned about my children.

‘Not harm to my children but it could be what they would be subjected to witness as I didn’t know what he would have done if I had forced him to get off me.’

She said that he told her: ‘I can’t stop, it feels so good.’

Longden-Thurgood denies rape, and the trial continues.