Former Met officer from same unit as Couzens and Carrick convicted of rape and sexual assault

A former Metropolitan police officer who served in the same command as Wayne Couzens and David Carrick has been convicted of sexual offences against a woman he met through his police work.

Mark Tyrrell, 57, was found guilty at Southwark crown court of one count of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of perverting the course of justice. The complainant cannot be named for legal reasons.

The court heard that Tyrrell raped the woman by having sex with her after she had repeatedly said no. He was then said to have told her: "I don't believe what's just happened." He also reportedly asked her: "Do you realise that what I've just done, that was rape?"

Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly KC told jurors that when the woman resisted his advances, "he simply chose to take what he wanted".

Concerns came to light after officers visited the woman's address in connection with a separate matter and found Tyrrell hiding by the side of her bed. The jury found him guilty of perverting the course of justice by trying to delete messages between the two of them. In one of those messages, the court was told, he apologised for "being a sex offender" and "for ruining your life by being in it".

Jurors cleared Tyrrell of 13 other charges, including one further count of rape. In his evidence, he maintained that sex between them was always consensual and that "there was never any forcefulness to it".

Tyrrell had earlier admitted misconduct in a public office. He had also pleaded guilty to a separate count of perverting the course of justice, by persuading the woman to lie to police about why he was in her bedroom.

He had been attached to the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, where the convicted rapists Couzens and Carrick also worked. Couzens kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard, 33, in 2021 while serving as a Met officer, and was later given a whole-life order. Carrick, 51, a former armed officer in the Met, is serving 37 life sentences after attacking more than a dozen women.

Ch Supt Sara Leach, a commander within specialist operations, said: "This kind of conduct is abhorrent but even more so when it is carried out by a serving officer, who had gained the trust of the victim." She added: "We remain appalled that someone like this was serving within our organisation and it is right he has been brought to justice."

Tyrrell, of Meltham, West Yorkshire, will be sentenced on 16 December.