After his stag party, a Metropolitan Police officer was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in the ocean off Brighton Beach.
On July 17, 2021, in the early morning hours, Sergeant Laurence Knight, 34, is reported to have encountered the woman, a stranger.
According to the prosecution, the two went together to the beach, stripped to their pants, and then ended up in the water, where they engaged in sexual behaviour.
The woman claims that she constantly ordered him to “stop” and reminded him that he was “getting married in two weeks,” the jury was informed.
Knight, of Leyton, east London, was charged with rape and sexual assault following the incident.
He was found not guilty of rape but convicted of sexual assault by a majority of 10:2 after more than seven hours of jury deliberations.
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The Met said he has been suspended from duty.
The Oxford University graduate, who was based at Stoke Newington Police Station, north London at the time, denied both charges.
Ms Maryam Syed, prosecuting, said Knight and the complainant were strangers when they bumped into each other in the early hours of July 17 in Brighton town centre.
She said: ‘[The complainant] and her friends were intending to head to the beach area and had been drinking earlier and had bought a bottle of wine and were intending to share it at the seafront.
‘The defendant was in Brighton on his stag night and he was with a group of friends. Earlier in the evening they had been at the Airbnb property where they were staying where they had been visited by some strippers.’
Ms Syed said: ‘[The woman] tells police that when they get to the sea front, the defendant wanted to go into the sea, and she did not wish to do that.
‘But he sought to persuade her, by telling her that it was his stag night, he was meant to be having fun, but it was turning into a rubbish night.
‘She explained to police that he looked like he was going to cry, so she then relented and said yes.
‘She did not wish to get her dress wet, so she went into the water wearing her underwear. She was not touching the defendant nor was he touching her at that point, they were simply treading water in the same area of the sea.’
She said in her interview: ‘I was facing away from the shore and he kind of came up behind me and so we were both facing the same direction and he was behind me.
‘I just remember it being really uncomfortable and it really hurt. I just said to him ‘What’, like, ‘what are you doing, stop’ and he didn’t.
‘He didn’t reply to me at any point. He was just completely silent and I just kept saying, I literally just kept repeating; ‘Don’t’ like ‘What are you doing?’
‘I said, ‘You’re getting married in two weeks’. ‘Just stop, don’t do that’ and he just didn’t stop.’
A member of Knight’s group came up to the complainant and said: ‘oh, Larry [a name Knight goes by] wants me to tell you that he’s sorry.’
Once Knight had left, the complainant told her friends ‘I think I need to call the police. It is an emergency, I don’t really know.’
In his evidence to the jury, Knight claimed the woman first touched his penis.
He told the court he then touched her vagina for a few seconds, thinking it was consensual, before she made the comment about his imminent wedding and they returned to the shore.
Knight, who is attached to Met Detention, the force’s custody command, was arrested on July 28 last year and has been suspended from duties whilst the investigation is ongoing.
Following his arrest, the Met Police made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct for a misconduct investigation to take place.
