A police officer with a career spanning 18 years has been found guilty of misconduct after he and a colleague preyed on a drunk woman in a patrol car.
PC Matthew Longmate, was on duty with PC Daniel Nash in Chesterfield centre, in Derbyshire, UK when they offered the victim a lift home after an incident at a bar.
Southwark Crown Court heard that Nash, who is now dead, had admitted using his job to pursue relationships with 13 women, including victims of domestic violence.
In his testimony, he said that Longmate, 47, had also been involved in the incident in the vehicle.
Longmate denied the accusations, but was found guilty after a four-day trial in London.
Longmate in his defence said that it would have been ‘physically impossible’ to have a threesome in a patrol car.
Jurors were told how the two preyed on the drunken woman after she was thrown out of the Association bar.
In a pre-recoded police interview played to the court, she could not recall actually giving consent to Nash and Longmate.
She ‘felt sick’ and ’embarrassed’ about the encounter, and stressed that she would have never done it had she been sober.
‘I remember police officers being outside. I don’t know why they have got called but they were there,’ the victim began detailing the night of October 4, 2015.
‘These officers were offering a lift home, saying “come on, we’ll give you a lift.”‘
Both officers were in uniform and she recalled getting into the back seat of the car with Nash, who started flirting with her.
‘I remember him trying it on with me and I remember being the same back,’ the woman said.
‘We were just kissing and I don’t know how it got to where it did, but obviously I know they ended up sleeping with me.’
‘I know he made the first move down the trousers. I remember when I was kissing him that’s what he was doing.
‘He was rubbing under my clothes and then obviously I think he undressed himself because I definitely didn’t, and I don’t know if he undressed me or if I did it myself.’
She said that while Nash was having sex with her she was facing the front of the car, and that he was encouraging the other officer to get involved.
‘He was saying “Come on, mate”, encouraging him and I am so drunk. I remember him unbuttoning his trousers near my face and I have done what I have done,’ the victim added.
In the days after, Nash even contacted her on Facebook and texted her asking her to have sex with him.
He asked if he can bring his colleague again, and even offered her £500 to have sex with him. The woman finally contacted police in 2020.
Polly Dyer, prosecuting lawyer, said;: ‘They used their position as police officers, offering her a lift home and then used that opportunity to engage in sexual activity with a woman who was extremely vulnerable and in need of their protection, by virtue of her drunken state and the fact she had been involved in an incident which had attracted the attention of the police.
‘There is no dispute that such activity amounts to misconduct in public office, undermining and abusing the trust the public have in police officers.’
She told the court that while the woman only positively identified Nash, Longmate had been his partner on the night of the incident.
Judge Chris Hehir said he would grant Longmate bail so he could spend Christmas with his family.
He told him: ‘You have been convicted by the jury of this serious offence.
‘Almost any police officers convicted of offences such as this do go straight to prison, but I do want to find out as much information as I can about you before passing sentence.
‘I am going to return you to bail until January 15, 2024, when you must return to this court for sentencing.
‘Due to the likely sentence I do want to allow him to spend Christmas with his family.’
