Serving British police officer charged with rape

The Met said on Friday that police officer Rupert Edwards had been suspended from duty in early September after he was arrested on suspicion of rape and then released on bail.

A serving British police officer has been charged with two counts of rape and will appear at a London court on Friday, the capital's Metropolitan Police said. Last year a serving officer was jailed for life for abducting a woman from a London street as she walked home then raping and murdering her in a case that shocked Britain and put a spotlight on standards in the Met, which has also faced accusations of bullying, racism and misogyny.

A public inquiry is underway to look at how a serving police officer was able to carry out such a crime and what lessons should be learnt so that it does not happen again. The Met said on Friday that police officer Rupert Edwards had been suspended from duty in early September after he was arrested on suspicion of rape and then released on bail. He was arrested again on Thursday, before being charged on Friday.

"This news is deeply worrying and I recognize the concern it will cause the public and other police officers," Commander Jon Savell, who is in charge of the Met's professionalism command, said in a statement. The Met said the charges related to two women aged in their 20s and 30s, with one of the offenses alleged to have happened in London in August and the second in Surrey in September, while the officer was off duty.