Jury discharged in case of Waterlooville police officer charged with rape
By Tom Morton
Published 19th Jan 2023, 17:25 BST
Updated 19th Jan 2023, 17:26 BST
A jury has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict in the trial of a police officer accused of raping a businesswoman on a first date after they met on the Bumble online dating app.
Police Constable David Longden-Thurgood, 49, of Waterlooville, was on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of the rape of the woman, a mother in her 30s, at her home in October 2020.
But after two days of deliberations, the jury failed to reach a verdict and was discharged on Thursday afternoon by Judge Richard Parkes KC.
The Crown Prosecution Service will now have to decide whether to apply for a retrial.
The prosecution had claimed that the complainant had told the defendant, who serves Hampshire Constabulary, that she did not want sex that night.
But the defendant had told the court that he believed that the sex was consensual.