Rape accused sergeant told victim 'no crimes committed'

The alleged victim is a female police officer

A police officer charged with rape messaged his alleged victim saying "no crimes were committed", a court has heard.

Jurors were shown an exchange between Sgt Richard Heard and his alleged victim, a female police officer.

Sgt Heard, 44, of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape and three counts of voyeurism.

The female officer has been giving evidence at Bournemouth Crown Court.

The court heard Sgt Heard sent her the message after he was released from police bail in June 2023.

As part of his bail conditions he was not allowed to contact the victim, jurors were told.

Defending, Matthew Butt KC suggested the messages were sent on 4 July and explained the pair exchanged a series of messages using an app called Viber, which has a disappearing message feature.

He showed the court images, taken by the victim, of the messages.

One of them, which Mr Butt read to the court, said: "It's all consensual. We have been nice to each other."

It added: "No crimes were committed. There was no harassment. No assault and we both want to carry on our jobs."

Mr Butt suggested to the victim: "He is paraphrasing what you had said already. You were explaining to him at this time that he had done nothing wrong."

She replied: "Yeah at that time I didn't want him angry with me."

The court also heard Sgt Heard asked her to delete messages.

Mr Butt suggested to the woman this was because Sgt Heard was "worried" if it was found out he was breaching bail "he would be in trouble".

The female officer replied: "I don't remember it being at that time."

Mr Butt also suggested that “nowhere” in the messages did she accuse Sgt Heard of rape, to which she replied “no, it was a phone call we had".

Mr Butt also asked: "You don't make any criminal allegations against him?"

She replied: "No."

Sgt Heard is also standing trial for assault by beating, perverting the course of justice and faces a further count of malicious communication against a second person.

The offences are all alleged to have happened between January 2022 and August 2023 while he was off duty.

Sgt Heard has been suspended by Hampshire Constabulary.

The trial continues.