Met Police officer cleared of raping woman he met at bar while off-duty
Jurors at Inner London Crown Court cleared Pc Rupert Edwards, 30, of allegedly raping the woman in Epsom, Surrey, on August 26 2022.
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A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been found not guilty of raping a woman he met at a bar while off-duty.
Jurors at Inner London Crown Court cleared Pc Rupert Edwards, 30, of raping the woman in Epsom, Surrey, on August 26 2022.
However, the jury was unable to return a verdict on a second count of rape, relating to a different woman whom Edwards met at a bar on September 5 2022.
Edwards wept in the dock as the juryās verdict was returned following eight hours and 22 minutes of deliberation.
In a prepared statement given to police, Edwards said all sexual activity with the first claimant was consensual and at no point did she indicate that she was not consenting, the court previously heard.
Edwards told police the second complainant never said she did not want sexual intercourse without contraception, and that they engaged in consensual sexual activity.
Prosecutor Robert Brown previously told the court that the first complainant met Edwards on a night out and danced with him, before ākissing the defendant, who she found attractiveā at a bar.
They later got a cab back to her home and had consensual sex āat least once, possibly twiceā.
The complainant claimed she later told him āI canāt go againā but the defendant pulled her leg up and initiated further sexual intercourse, Mr Brown said.
Asked if the woman told him she did not want to have sex again because she was ātired and soreā, Edwards told the court: āI do not agree with thatā.
The second complainant recalled engaging in consensual sex with Edwards in Lambeth, south London, but ātold him from the outset there could be no intercourseā because they did not have any condoms.
The woman said Edwards agreed to this but she was later awoken when he raped her, jurors heard.
The prosecutor said: āIsnāt the truth that she said you couldnāt have sex because she had no condoms?ā Edwards replied: āNoā.
When pressed by Mr Brown, the suspended Pc said: āAt no point was she asleep [during sex].ā
Edwards said the woman had been a āsimilar level of drunkā to him, adding he was āshocked and surprisedā to be arrested the next morning.