South Yorkshire Police officer Rowan Horrocks claims sex was consensual

PC Rowan Horrocks is accused of two counts of rape

A police officer accused of a "violent rape" told a court he "would never get off on causing pain to someone".

PC Rowan Horrocks is accused of raping the woman twice, biting her repeatedly and pulling out a clump of her hair during the alleged assault in November 2021.

Giving evidence at Leeds Crown Court he told jurors that all sexual activity between the two was consensual.

PC Horrocks, 27, from South Yorkshire Police, denies two counts of rape.

Prosecutor Gillian Batts had previously told the court the officer knew the complainant and had exchanged "flirtatious" messages with her in the weeks before the incident.

She said on the night of the alleged attack the woman "had been drinking over a prolonged period" before the defendant picked her up in a taxi and took her to his home in Rotherham.

She said the woman had been "in no fit state to consent to anything".

Giving evidence, the officer said the sex had been consensual, and that the woman had "seemed fine" and "a bit merry".

He said the bruising to her chest, neck and breasts was caused by him giving her "love bites", but denied that he "bit her very hard, repeatedly".

"I'm not the sort of person that would intentionally leave any mark on any person so bad," he said.

He claimed the woman "didn't tell me to get off" when he was pulling her hair, and when asked whether that was because she was "so drunk", he replied: "No, not at all, because she wasn't so drunk."

Asked by Ms Batts if he liked hurting his partner during sex, PC Horrocks said: "Not necessarily, no."

The court previously heard claims that the alleged attack was a "deliberate infliction of pain" by the defendant who had shown "premeditated, predatory behaviour" towards a "drunk young woman".

PC Horrocks has been suspended by South Yorkshire Police and faces misconduct proceedings.

The trial continues.