Chief inspector took sexual advantage of vulnerable junior officer, court told
David Rolls is accused of misconduct in public office by forming a sexual relationship with a junior officer at Sussex Police.
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A Sussex Police chief inspector had sex with a vulnerable junior officer in her home and allegedly filmed it as he took advantage of her sexually, a court has heard.
David Rolls, 46, is accused of misconduct in public office by forming a sexual relationship with another officer, who was struggling with her mental health, between 2016 and 2018.
At Lewes Crown Court on Monday, prosecutor Alisdair Smith said someone in his position should have, or would have, realised that having sex with someone who was vulnerable was an “improper thing to do”.
Jurors heard that the pair exchanged flirty and intimate messages and pictures, and on one occasion Rolls asked for a hug while he was aroused, and asked the woman to give him oral sex, which she did.
Asked why she did this, the officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said in a police interview: “I didn’t want him to stop being there for me so I felt I had to please him.”
Opening the case, Mr Smith said: “This is a good example of the way in which David William Rolls was taking advantage of his position to get that sexual advantage from her.
“He succeeded in … involving her sexually with him.”
Jurors heard that the woman told police in interview that Rolls had asked her not to tell anyone about their relationship because he would lose his job.
In the police interview, asked if she felt she had a choice in the sexual relations, she said “no”, adding: “Now because I’m well I would be like ‘f*** off’ but at the time I wasn’t well enough, I was at my worst.
“He just gave me another reason to hate myself.”
She told officers: “Looking back, I thought he really liked me at the time and fancied me but we were never having an affair or relationship. It wasn’t like that, it was very one-sided.
“I’d have to give a lot to him, like pictures, about myself, I didn’t get much back from him.”
On sending intimate pictures of herself to him, she said: “I can’t imagine me sending a picture to him without him asking for it.”
The court heard that, on another visit to her home, Rolls had sex with the woman who said in her interview it was the “most extreme” and “most uncomfortable I felt”.
She added: “I felt like he wanted something more to happen…
“I didn’t want to not do what he asked me to do.”
During the incident, she said: “He was holding his phone, he said he was taking a picture.
“Very quickly he left and he said that he had to go shopping so he had to leave. I was left thinking have I done something wrong?”
The sexual relationship ended in November 2017 and the woman is said to have deleted his number from her phone, Mr Smith added.
He said Rolls denies having any sexual relations with the woman.
Sussex Police said Rolls resigned as a detective chief inspector in March 2023.
The trial continues.