A police officer acquitted of raping a businesswoman he met online tried to hide his occupation during trial, arguing that jurors would be “biased” against him.
David Longden-Thurgood’s lawyer tried to hide the fact that he is a police officer before his first trial at Winchester Crown Court, claiming the jury could not remain impartial following the murder of Sarah Everard.
The Hampshire PC was officially cleared of the sexual assault on the woman he met on Bumble last month, after two previous trials against him collapsed.
The first trial, in June 2022, was abandoned after jurors contracted coronavirus. During a retrial in January, the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
It was announced last week that prosecutors would not seek another trial because the woman involved did not want to present evidence a third time.
Longden-Thurgood’s lawyer, Fern Russell, first argued that her occupation should not be revealed to jurors during the trial because of the “public outcry” that followed the Sarah Everard case.
David Longden-Thurgood’s lawyer (pictured) tried to hide the fact that he is a police officer before his first trial at Winchester Crown Court.
After that legal request was dismissed, she tried to persuade the court to bar the media from reporting on the nature of her work until the end of the trial.
He also complained about new reports referring to his work and Twitter users who had expressed opinions about the case on social media.
According to Ms Russell, Longden-Thurgood’s work is of “minimal value” and the reporting on it is “sensational”. She added that officers charged with sex crimes against women have unfair biases and she “shouldn’t have to deal with it.”
The first trial was due to start on June 6 last year and was expected to last about a week, but was halted for legal reasons on the first day.
On the second day, the trial was halted again when Ms. Russell applied to exclude her client’s profession from the trial.
Filing the application, Ms Russell said that police officers charged with sexual offenses against women have a “weight of suspicion” on them.
“Being a police officer charged with sexual offenses against women puts police officers in a prejudicial position,” he said.
‘(Longden-Thurgood) was indicted within a month of the murder of Sarah Everard. When being a police officer has a minimum value for (the case), reference to it should be excluded.
Hampshire’s PC was officially cleared of the sexual assault on the woman he met on Bumble last month, after two previous trials against him collapsed.
Longden-Thurgood walked free when jurors failed to agree after he argued that the woman was willing to participate.
‘We all know the public outcry when officers are charged with sexual offenses against vulnerable women. Having to deal with her occupation (being revealed) will only bring prejudice within her… She shouldn’t have to deal with that.’
Judge Robert Bright QC dismissed the application, ruling that the position of Longden-Thurgood Police Officer was part of the reason the woman trusted him enough to invite him to her home for the jury to hear.
“It is the case that he said he was a policeman and that he was going to protect her,” said the judge. He also said there was an ‘imbalance of power’ in the incident due to the circumstances.
The case was scheduled to open on June 8 but was adjourned after an illness in court. It officially opened on June 10.
After the prosecution laid out the case to jurors and media reports of the opening of the trial circulated, Ms Russell said she would seek a temporary ban on reporting on her client’s work, but this was dismissed.
But after the story appeared in several national newspapers over the weekend, he made two requests.
Firstly, he tried to fire the jury, claiming that the coverage was ‘sensationalist’ and that, together with the comments on social media, it was biased against Longden-Thurgood, which meant that the jurors would not be able to judge him fairly. fair if they saw it.
Second, he requested that a temporary ban on reporting on his work be placed at the end of the trial.
Longden-Thurgood (pictured) has been a Hampshire Police Officer for 19 years.
But Judge Bright QC dismissed both requests, ruling: “I consider the risks (of bias) in this case, associated as they are with references to something the jury already knows, are exaggerated.”
No similar requests were filed in the retrial in the same court last month.
Longden-Thurgood, a 19-year-old Hampshire police officer, walked free when jurors failed to agree after he argued that the woman was willing to participate. He said that she had performed oral sex on him, moved into a sexual position and made noises as if she was “enjoying it.”
He stated that as the father of daughters and having ‘dealt with rape victims’, he would not engage in non-consensual sex.
The jury was acquitted after telling the judge it could not reach a verdict on a single rape charge, after deliberating for just over nine hours.
During the nine-day trial, jurors heard that the father-of-three met the woman on Bumble and she felt a “degree of trust because he was a police officer.”
He sent her selfies, talking about having sex in his uniform and told her she’s “a bit of a rebel off duty” when the pair exchanged sexualized messages in October 2020. In these messages, he boasted about her physique and told her He said: ‘I will protect you for life, you will be my girl, I will take care of you.’
After a day of texting and nude selfies, the woman invited him to her Hampshire home where they had sex.
Longden-Thurgood said he was “absolutely confident that she was happy with what was going on.” He added that before they met, he thought she was “quite interested” since her messages had been “very explicit.”
He walked free from Winchester Crown Court last month.
