Police officer jailed for 2018 rape of colleague

A Metropolitan Police officer who raped a female officer after a New Year's Eve party has been jailed for seven years.

Rupert Edwards, 33, raped the woman at her home while he was off duty.

Edwards heard about the party in London and attended after midnight on 1 January 2018 when there had been fireworks, Southwark Crown Court heard on Friday.

Timothy Greaves, for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "Rupert Edwards preyed on a woman and took advantage of her. Despite his claims that this was consensual, the evidence clearly showed that it was rape."

Edwards, who was 24 when he raped the woman, did not react as he was sentenced.

The former police constable was also given a restraining order banning him from contacting the victim or going to an address where she may be present.

Prosecutor John Clifford told the court that the victim was drinking heavily at the party as midnight approached.

She fell asleep on the sofa before waking up. The victim said she had very vague recollections but remembered a taxi ride with the defendant and recalled thinking it was strange he had not left the vehicle before her.

Edwards had diverted an Uber booked to go to his own home to go to the victim's instead, the court heard.

The next thing she remembered was waking up next to the defendant in her bed where they were both naked, the prosecutor said.

Edwards then made a crass remark about the fact they had had sex, and the victim was "disgusted" as she had never consented to sexual intercourse and would never have done so, the court heard.

He later sent the victim a text asking for another sexual encounter.

In her victim impact statement, read to the court, the woman said she felt "emotionally numb" after the attack.

She said: "While I was not suicidal, I often felt that the idea of not waking up the next day was appealing."

She added: "A conviction does not bring me closure. I will continue to live with the effects of what he has done."

The victim contacted police in October 2023 to report the rape.

Edwards was arrested in April 2024, the Metropolitan Police said, and he was charged with rape the following March.

Edwards, who had been a police officer for more than eight years before he was suspended in 2022, was found guilty on 22 May of one count of rape following a trial.

The court heard Edwards, of Bexhill, East Sussex,had previously been charged with rape of two other women but was acquitted of raping one in a first trial, and cleared of the rape of the other following a retrial.

The CPS said although he had not been convicted following that first trial, prosecutors successfully applied to the court to use the same evidence as bad character evidence in this trial.

Prosecutors presented recorded interviews and cross-examination evidence from the previous proceedings, which revealed similarities in Edwards' behaviour across both cases.

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