Ex-Metropolitan Police officer jailed for raping woman

Ex-PC Ireland Murdock attacked his victim while he was off duty

A former Metropolitan Police officer has been jailed for four years after being found guilty of raping a woman while he was off duty.

Ex-PC Ireland Murdock, 27, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on Thursday for raping the woman, who was known to him, in Lambeth in 2021.

He was also jailed for an additional six weeks for searching for the victim's name on a police system and accessing a restricted crime report.

Murdock spoke only to confirm his name.

During the trial, the court heard Murdock had attacked his victim while he was off duty on 25 September 2021.

'Physical and mental pain'

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, the victim said: "After the rape, I was not ok.

"I was in physical and mental pain and I felt violated."

The victim said that in the months after the attack she, "never felt completely safe, I was worried he would come to my house any day".

"I trusted him and he broke my trust when he raped me."

Defence lawyer Luke Ponton told the court that Murdock had suffered from a difficult childhood during which he was in and out of foster care, but "despite this he still managed to work hard and join the police force".

He requested the judge disregard the fact that Murdock was a serving police officer at the time because he said his job had had no relevance to the events that had taken place.

Judge Usha Karu told Murdock that he had severely impacted the victim with his actions.

She added he had "breached her trust" but also noted that Murdock had "no previous convictions" and had "already suffered by losing employment as a police officer".

Murdock will serve at least half of his sentence.

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