Of f icer ‘raped woman he met on female-friendly dating app’
A POLICE officer raped a businesswoman a day after meeting her on the Bumble dating app and telling her ‘I’ll protect you’, a court heard yesterday.
David Longden-Thurgood allegedly ‘would not take no for an answer’ despite the woman repeatedly telling him she didn’t want to have sex.
A court heard divorced Longden-Thurgood, 48, met the woman, a mother in her 30s, on the female-friendly dating app and she felt a ‘degree of trust because he was a police officer’.
The Hampshire police constable sent her lewd selfies, chatted about having sex in his uniform and told her ‘I’m a bit of a rebel off duty’ as the pair exchanged messages. He also told her: ‘I’ll protect you for life, you will be my baby girl, I’ll look after you.’
Prosecutor Rebecca Fairbairn told the court that after a day of the pair exchanging explicit messages and selfies, the woman invited him to her home in Hampshire where she consented to some sexual activity but repeatedly told him ‘I don’t want sex’.
Opening the trial at Winchester Crown Court, Miss Fairbairn said father-of-three Longden-Thurgood matched with the woman on Bumble in October 2020.
Bumble is seen as a femalefriendly dating app because conversations can only be initiated by women, which helps them to avoid unwanted attention or unsolicited messages.
Miss Fairbairn told the jury: ‘You must not think that because she consented to some sexual activity that she agreed to full intercourse with him.’
The court heard that ten minutes after arriving at her home, once her children had been put to bed, Longden-Thurgood, a police officer for 19 years, ‘put his hand up her top’. His victim ‘laughed it off’ and later they kissed on the sofa.
She suggested they go upstairs to watch TV and warned him ‘no funny business’. They engaged in some sexual activity which the alleged victim said she consented to.
But, when she noticed Longden-Thurgood taking his boxers off, she told him ‘I don’t want to have sex’. He replied ‘don’t worry we won’t have sex’.
Jurors were told Longden-Thur
‘My kids were in the other room’
good then raped the woman. When she told him again she didn’t want sex, Longden-Thurgood told her: ‘Well it feels too good – I can’t stop now.’ Longden-Thurgood’s rank was not given in court but it was heard he carries out risk assessments in a force control room.
In a police interview played to the court, the woman said Longden-Thurgood’s status as a police officer ‘almost gave me a sense of trust’.
As the alleged rape unfolded, she said she ‘couldn’t kick off because my kids were in the other room’ and ‘zoned myself out’. She said some of his sexual activity was ‘aggressive’. The court heard the next day the woman messaged Longden-Thurgood about how she had said no and asking how he would react if his daughter was put in that situation.
He replied calling her ‘miserable’ and added: ‘I’m sorry, you said we were not having sex then you invited me into your bedroom and one thing led to another.’
The court heard Longden-Thurgood suggested she was blowing matters ‘out of proportion’ and suggested they ‘move on’ and meet for a drink. Longden-Thurgood, from Waterlooville, Hampshire, denies rape. The trial continues.