Police officer accused of raping woman ‘would not take no for an answer’

A police officer "would not take no for an answer" before he raped a businesswoman as her children slept nearby, a court has heard.

Police Constable David Longden-Thurgood, of Waterlooville, Hampshire, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of raping the woman in her own home in October 2020.

Rebecca Fairbairn, prosecuting, told the jury that the 48-year-old defendant “would not take no for an answer”.

She described how the woman, aged in her 30s, invited the defendant to her house after they met on the Bumble dating app and sent a series of sexualised messages to each other.

Fairbairn said that they talked before the defendant began kissing the woman and she removed her bra from under her t-shirt.

She said that the complainant was “comfortable” with this because she was attracted to the defendant, who serves in Hampshire Police Force, but when they decided to go upstairs to continue watching the television on her bed, she told him: “No funny business.”

Fairbairn said that when they got to the bedroom, the defendant took his clothes off apart from his boxer shorts and got into bed and the pair began to “spoon” each other.

She said that they began to be more sexually intimate but as he removed his boxer shorts, the woman said to him: “I do not want to have sex, we are not going to have sex.”

The defendant replied: “Don’t worry, we won’t have sex,” the prosecutor told the court.

Fairbairn said that “without warning”, the defendant then penetrated the complainant.

She said: “At that stage she thought ‘What do I do? I have told him and he hasn’t listened’. She didn’t know how he would react, she felt she couldn’t risk her children waking.”

Fairbairn said the woman repeated "‘I do not want sex’" but Longden-Thurgood said words to the effect of "It feels too good, I can’t stop now" and penetrated her again.

The prosecutor said that after the defendant had left her house, the complainant sent him a message saying: “It’s just I kept saying ‘No, we are not having sex’.”

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She said the defendant replied: “Sorry babe, to spoon after all that and not have sex.”

Fairbairn added: “The defendant didn’t think that (the complainant) had a right to agree to some sexual activity and not everything.”

The following day, the woman told a friend that she had been with someone “who didn’t take no for an answer”.

The friend had asked her if she was contacting the police, to which she replied: “He is the police.”

Fairbairn also read out messages from before the pair met including one the defendant sent saying: “I will shield you, I will protect you.”

Longden-Thurgood, who has served as a police officer for 19 years, denies the charge and the trial continues.