Met Police officer Carl Blood cleared of rape and sex assault
A Metropolitan Police officer has been cleared of raping a woman and sexually assaulting another.
Carl Blood, 37, from Luton, was accused of raping a woman he met online on a first date and sexually assaulting another woman on a late night train.
He pleaded not guilty, saying both had consented, and was cleared by a jury at Luton Crown Court earlier.
After the verdict, the judge said: "On his own account... I ask is he a fit person to be a police officer?"
During his trial the court was told the police sergeant had met the woman accusing him of rape on the Plenty of Fish dating website.
Following dinner on 25 January 2016, he persuaded her to go back to his Luton flat to watch a video in his bedroom.
In a police interview, the woman said Mr Blood had started to undress her, and she told him: "This is not what I do on a first date.
"I never gave him to believe I was consenting. He did not take no for an answer," she said.
On 16 June 2016 the officer was said to have sexually assaulted a woman on a Thameslink train from London to Bedfordshire.
The woman told police they got chatting and when he kissed her, she "didn't brush him off", however when she woke up to find the officer sexually assaulting her, she told him: "I don't want this".
Mr Blood admitted in court to being "between tipsy and drunk" at the time, and said he "felt uninhibited by the alcohol I had consumed".
He denied rape and assault by penetration and was cleared of both charges.
After the jury had delivered its verdict and left the courtroom, Judge Barbara Mensah said: "The defendant leaves the court without a stain on his character.
"But I want to say this, I think right-thinking members of the public would question whether Mr Blood, even on his own account, is a right and proper person to be a police officer."
In a statement released after the conclusion of the trial, the Met Police said the force's professional standards directorate would be reviewing evidence from the case to consider whether to bring misconduct proceedings.