Ex-Met officer from Couzens unit guilty of rape

A former Metropolitan Police officer who served in the same command as Wayne Couzens has been found guilty of raping a woman.

Mark Tyrell, 57, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of one count of rape, three of sexual assault and one of perverting the course of justice by trying to delete messages he had sent her.

Jurors heard he had sex with the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, after she repeatedly said no, then asked her: "Do you realise that what I've just done, that was rape?"

He was cleared of a further count of rape, four of assault by penetration and eight of sexual assault.

Tyrell, of Meltham, West Yorkshire, had been attached to the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, the unit in which Couzens and David Carrick, both convicted rapists, also served.

Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly KC said that when the woman resisted his advances "he simply chose to take what he wanted". Concerns were first raised when officers visiting her home on an unrelated matter found him hiding beside her bed.

In one message, he apologised for "being a sex offender" and "for ruining your life by being in it".