Met Police officer denies raping two women he met on nights out

The rapes are alleged to have happened 11 days apart last summer

Metropolitan Police officer Rupert Edwards has denied raping two women (Elizabeth Cook/PA) (PA Archive)

A serving Metropolitan Police officer raped two women in 11 days after meeting them in bars while off duty, a court has heard.

Suspended PC Rupert Edwards, 30, is alleged to have raped one woman in Epsom, Surrey, on August 26, 2022, and the other in Lambeth, south London, on September 5, 2022, Inner London Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

Edwards, from Ashtead, Surrey, denies attacking the complainants, who are in their 20s and 30s.

Prosecutor Robert Brown said the first complainant met Edwards on a night out and later danced with him, before “kissing the defendant, who she found attractive” at a bar.

They later got a cab back to her home and had consensual sex “at least once, possibly twice”, Mr Brown said.

The complainant claims she later told him: “I can’t go again” but the defendant pulled her leg up and initiated further sexual intercourse, Mr Brown said.

The prosecutor said she did not consent to this and the defendant knew that, but “carried on regardless”.

He said the woman slept until noon the next day, at which point Edwards left.

She then “tried to put the incident out of her mind and get on with her life”, before it was later reported to police in November 2022.

A video of her police interview in December 2022 was played to jurors, in which she appeared tearful as she recounted the alleged rape.

She said: “I was saying to myself in my head: ‘I’m being raped right now,’ but it’s like I froze. I just couldn’t do or say anything else (after saying “I can’t go again”), so I just let it happen.”

The woman later added: “He didn’t say anything at this point but in my mind I thought: ‘Well, I’ve said it now, I should only have to say once.'”

Mr Brown said the second count of rape on the indictment relates to another woman who was interviewed by police on September 6, 2022.

She said she had met Edwards on a night out and recalled kissing him before they took a taxi back to her home, jurors heard.

Mr Brown said the woman recalls engaging in consensual sex with him at the address, but said she “told him from the outset there could be no intercourse” because they did not have any condoms.

The woman said Edwards agreed to this but that she was later awoken when he raped her, jurors heard.

Mr Brown said she challenged him on what he was doing, and Edwards then apologised and left.

He added: “She says she was angry and confused because he had told her he was a police officer and so she sent him a text (at 4.51am) thanking him for destroying her faith in the justice system.”

She then called 999 and reported the incident to the police, he said.

The officer, attached to the South West Basic Command Unit, was then arrested on suspicion of raping her in September 2022 and was bailed and suspended from duty.

He was taken to a police station and interviewed under caution, and, in a prepared statement, he denied the allegation, Mr Brown said.

On December 8 2022, he was further arrested on suspicion of raping the first complainant and charged the following day.

He was taken to the same police station, interviewed under caution and denied the allegation, Mr Brown said.

Mr Brown said that in a prepared statement given to police Edwards claimed that all sexual activity with the first claimant was consensual and at no point did she indicate that she was not consenting.

He said Edwards told police the second complainant never said that she did not want sexual intercourse without contraception and that they had engaged in consensual sexual activity.

The trial continues.