An on-duty Metropolitan Police officer appeared in court charged with raping a woman in the sea off Brighton beach.
Sergeant Laurence Knight, 33, is said to have met the woman, a stranger, in the early hours of July 17 last year at a bachelor party in the city centre.
Prosecutors say the couple went to the beach together, stripped down to their underwear and ended up in the sea, where sexual activity allegedly took place.
Knight, attached to Met Detention, the force’s custody command, was arrested on July 28 last year and appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
Dressed in a dark blue suit, pale shirt and yellow tie, he spoke to confirm his name, date of birth and address in Waltham Forest, east London.
He was not asked to plead to charges of rape and sexual assault.
District Judge Nina Tempia granted Knight bail on the condition that he not contact any witnesses for the prosecution.
Knight, who the Met says has been suspended from duty, will next appear at Southwark Crown Court on August 2.
Scotland Yard previously said he was off duty at the time of the alleged offences.
