A Metropolitan Police (Met) officer has been dismissed after raping a woman in a police locker room.
The incident happened last March after the off-duty Pc took the drunk woman to St Pancras station in north London.
The victim, in her early 20s, made a complaint but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided there was insufficient evidence to press charges.
But a Met Police misconduct hearing found he had non-consensual sex.
The woman had drunk several glasses of wine at a party at a hotel in central London and went outside when she began to feel unwell.
CCTV showed the 43-year-old Pc, who had been drinking in a nearby pub, starting to talk to the woman.
He then led her away from her party to nearby St Pancras train station where he was due to sleep in a locker room before starting work early the next day.
In interview he said during the night they had consensual sex.
“The actions of this officer will rightly appal the public as they have appalled me”
Rachel Cerfontyne IPCC Commissioner
When the woman returned home she told her friend she had little memory of the evening after leaving the party.
She said she recalled waking up to find a man having sex with her.
The matter was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), who managed the investigation and the evidence given to the CPS.
A CPS spokesman said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute as it has to prove the offence occurred beyond all reasonable doubt.
But the Met’s disciplinary hearing findings, based on the information gathered by the IPCC inquiry, are based on the balance of all probabilities, and found he had non-consensual sex with the woman.
The IPCC refused to name the officer as he had not been charged with an offence.
IPCC Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said: “The actions of this officer will rightly appal the public as they have appalled me.
“His behaviour was in my view predatory and he exploited the vulnerability of a young woman.
“His conduct would be contemptible from anyone – from a police officer it is nothing short of despicable.”
Commander Mark Simmons said: “This officer acted in an intolerable way and it is only right that once such dreadful behaviour was found proven the man was dismissed.”
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Ronni Chasen had worked on the promotion of such films as Lolita and Driving Miss Daisy
Related stories
The Palm Springs film festival has offered a $100,000 (£62,500) reward to help find the killer of a Hollywood publicist shot dead in her car.
Ronni Chasen, 64, was killed as she drove home from a party after Monday’s Hollywood premiere of the Cher and Christina Aguilera film Burlesque.
Festival chairman Harold Matzner paid tribute to “a genius at her craft”.
Beverly Hills police said nothing had been ruled out, including a carjacking, a random or a targeted attack.
Authorities have searched her Los Angeles home and her West Hollywood office but have yet to find a motive.
Friends of Ms Chasen – who was working on a campaign to get the Burlesque soundtrack nominated for an Oscar – said they were unaware of her having any enemies.
Residents said they heard gunfire in the early hours of Tuesday morning
“A publicist doesn’t make that type of enemies,” said singer-songwriter Carol Connors, a friend.
Palm Springs chairman Mr Matzner said Ms Chasen was “a very good lady and a good friend” whose death was “sad and mystifying.”
Publicist Michael Levine has started a fund which he hopes will raise a further $25,000 (£15,600) towards a reward for information leading to her killer’s conviction.
Ms Chasen, who worked on such films as Driving Miss Daisy the 1994 remake of Lolita, was shot several times in the chest as she drove through Beverly Hills in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Her car was found crashed into a lamppost on Whittier Drive, south of Sunset Boulevard.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Irish Republic remains at the heart of the latest storm surrounding eurozone countries
A team of international officials is due to arrive in the Irish Republic for further talks on the debt crisis.
Representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union (EU) will take part.
The talks will take place with the Irish Government, which has not itself asked for any aid.
Many believe some sort of bailout will be needed to prop up Ireland’s heavily indebted banks.
Fears about their stability has led to a rise in the price the Irish government – which has pumped billions into its banks – pays to borrow money.
Other eurozone countries that are also perceived as weak are seeing their borrowing costs rise too.
The latest discussions follow a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday of European finance ministers.
The ministers said they had not held detailed discussions on a potential bail-out for the Irish Republic – because the Irish government had not requested financial help.
Without a request for assistance, none can be given, despite the wishes of some fellow eurozone countries, such as Portugal and Spain, who would like the issue to be settled in order to stop disorder on the financial markets.
The Irish government has stressed it does not need to borrow money for public spending until into next year.
But it has a gaping budget deficit and will shortly announce another severe round of spending cuts and possible tax rises to plug the gap.
The country’s banks have recently become heavily dependent on loans from the ECB.
Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders was chairing the meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin), on behalf of the Belgian presidency.
He said that there were differences between the Irish situation and the position Greece found itself in earlier this year, when it received an EU-IMF rescue package.
“This time we’re concerned about a country, but there’s no request from that country,” said Mr Reynders.
“It’s a major difference between this case and the Greece case because we have instruments [to act],” he added.
He also said that it was difficult for the European Central Bank (ECB) to go further in the provision of liquidity to Irish banks.
Once known as the “Celtic tiger” because of the strength of its economic boom, the Republic has since suffered the deepest recession of any country in the developed world, including collapsing property prices and a deeply-indebted banking sector.
EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said the Irish government was committed to the technical discussions taking place with the EU, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
These discussions focus on the plan to reduce the budget deficit over the next four years and to stabilise the banking sector.
“The Irish authorities are committed to intensify this work,” he said.
Mr Rehn also sought to clarify the situation regarding Greece’s bail-out, following concerns raised by Austria that Greece had not fulfilled its obligations under the EU-backed aid package, as well as reports that Austria had yet to submit its December contribution to the bail-out.
“A decision on the third instalment for Greece should be taken in December by the 14 participating euro area member states that participate in the loan scheme. But the disbursement has always been seen for January next year,” he said.
“The decision is in December, the disbursement in January, so there is no delay.”
There have been reports that the UK is considering offering billions of pounds of direct loans to the Irish Republic.
However, a spokesman for the UK Treasury said: “There has been no application from Ireland and we are not speculating on the situation.”
But Chancellor George Osborne said the UK was “ready to support Ireland”, as he arrived for the Ecofin meeting.
“We’re going to do what is in Britain’s national interest,” he said.
“Ireland is our closest neighbour and it’s in Britain’s national interest that the Irish economy is successful and we have a stable banking system.”
The Irish government has repeatedly denied that it is seeking outside support. Prime Minister Brian Cowen has said that he has not asked for bail-out money and that the Irish economy is well funded until next year.
An EU handout would be seen as a big loss of face for the Republic – essentially meaning that its survival and solvency was reliant on Brussels.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
