London cop 'was recorded raping a woman as she pleaded with him to stop after she installed a sleep app on her iPhone'

A police officer was recorded raping a woman after she installed a sleep app on her iPhone, a court heard.

Michael Graham, 47, allegedly tied the woman up and throttled her before forcing himself upon her.

Graham, a Metropolitan police officer serving in the Borough of Hounslow, began raping the alleged victim around Christmas 2013 at his then home in Uxbridge, jurors heard.

He became increasingly violent and angry after taking the drug Champix to help him quit smoking, the Old Bailey heard.

The woman pleaded with him not to rape her, but he would tell her she 'needed to be punished for winding him up,' jurors were told.

She later told police Graham had become obsessed with killing people and would talk about it often.

Graham allegedy abused the woman for over nine months between December 24, 2013 and September 2, 2014 when she called police after he threatened to kill her.

Unbeknown to Graham, some of the violent attacks were recorded on his alleged victim's iPhone on a sleep app used to help people monitor their sleep activity.

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall said: 'The complainant had a sleep app that was set off by sound, it's an app you can have on your mobile phone - people use it so that when they talk in their sleep or snore they can gauge their sleep behaviour.

'She ended up recording a little bit more than she intended - we have them and we're going to play them to you.

'The complainant never listened to them but she knew what was there and she described them to the police and she gave them to the police - some of the offences have actually been captured on that sleep app.'

She added: 'He would often end up tying her up and slapping her on the face and buttocks, but he would repeatedly cross the line from rough sex into rape.

'Michael Graham was increasingly ill tempered having given up cigarettes and would tell the complainant she needed to be punished.'

Graham liked to strangle his victim, jurors were told, and would force her to perform painful and humiliating sex acts.

Ms Marshall said: 'There's times on the recordings when she says "please don't do that, please don't do that" and there are two occasions of anal rape recorded on the sleep app.

'She describes her memory of the rapes as like a large washing machine going round and round in her head.'

In her police interview, the victim said Graham had started becoming violent around Christmas of 2013, and would often force her wrists back, force her to the floor and kneel on her.

She said: 'Sometimes I would just give them [sex] to him as he was going to get them anyway.'

Ms Marshall said: 'It's plain from the recordings that at the time the sexual assaults are taking place he's hurting her, she doesn't want him to carry out those acts.

'She clearly tells him she doesn't want him to do those acts.

'We say he knew she wasn't consenting, he knew she didn't want him to do those things but he carried on regardless - using her fear and her submission for his own ends.'

When he was first arrested, Graham denied ever hitting or tying up the complainant, and insisted he had never sexually assaulted her.

He added that he had patchy memory of the last few months due to a side-effect of his insomnia medication.

After being played the sleep app recordings in his second interview Graham insisted the violent sex was consensual, saying it 'appeared bad' but that's how they had sex.

Graham, of Poole, Dorset denies seven counts of rape and one count of sexual assault relating to strangling the complainant.

Original report here


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