Police chief ‘filmed himself having sex with vulnerable junior officer’
A police chief inspector had sex with a vulnerable junior officer in her home and filmed it, a court has heard.
David Rolls, of Sussex Police, has been accused of misconduct in public office by forming a sexual relationship with another officer, who was struggling with her mental health, between 2016 and 2018.
Prosecutor Alisdair Smith said someone in Rolls’ position should or would have realised having sex with a vulnerable person was an ‘improper thing to do’.
The pair exchanged intimate messages and pictures, and on one occasion Rolls, 46, asked for a hug while he was aroused, and asked the junior officer to perform oral sex, which she did.
When asked why she did this, the female officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she ‘didn’t want him to stop being there for me’ and ‘felt I had to please him,’ Jurors heard at Lewes Crown Court on Monday.
In the police interview, the woman said she felt as though she didn’t have a choice in the sexual relations, ‘Now because I’m well I would be like ‘f*** off’ but at the time I wasn’t well enough, I was at my worst.
‘He just gave me another reason to hate myself.’
Rolls had asked her not to tell anyone about their relationship because he would lose his job, the woman told police in an interview.
‘Looking back, I thought he really liked me at the time and fancied me but we were never having an affair or relationship. It wasn’t like that, it was very one-sided.
‘I’d have to give a lot to him, like pictures, about myself, I didn’t get much back from him,’ she added.
On a visit to her home, Rolls had sex with the woman, who said in her interview it was the ‘most extreme’ and ‘most uncomfortable’ she felt.
‘I felt like he wanted something more to happen
‘I didn’t want to not do what he asked me to do,’ she said.
The sexual relationship ended in November 2017, and Prosecutor Alisdair Smith said the woman deleted his number from her phone, and Rolls denies having any sexual relations with the woman.
Sussex Police said Rolls resigned as a detective chief inspector in March 2023.
The trial continues.
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