A police officer, Sergeant Lee Cocking, on duty engaged in sexual intercourse with a lady in his vehicle after she was ejected from a pub for excessive intoxication, a court has been informed.
On December 23, 2017, Sergeant Lee Cocking provided the woman with a ride home after she was ejected from Skinny Dippers in Weston-Super-Mare.
Jurors were informed that the 30-year-old lady instructed the married Avon and Somerset police officer to ‘man up’ and engage in sexual intercourse with her.
Sgt Lee Cocking, from Cheddar, Somerset, asserts that he did not consent to sexual intercourse, alleging that she removed her jeans and knickers, undid his trousers and began to straddle him in the driver’s seat.
The woman informed the court that she consumed ‘three pints of cider followed by several gin and tonics’ and was too inebriated to recall all the events of that evening.
She asserts that they unequivocally engaged in sexual intercourse in the unmarked silver Vauxhall Astra belonging to the policeman, claiming she sustained a friction burn on her skin.
The court was informed that a female police officer conversed with the woman prior to Sgt. Lee Cocking’s arrival at 3:10 AM in full uniform.
He successfully pacified her and subsequently proposed to escort her home due to concerns over her vulnerability in her inebriated condition.
The woman said: ‘I don’t recall getting into the police car, but I know that when Sgt Lee Cocking offered to take me home, I believed him. I wouldn’t have asked him for sex, he is a police officer.’
Defending Sgt Lee Cocking, Ray Tully QC suggested to the woman that as they arrived at Knightstone Island, Weston, she asked him to slow down and drop her off.
He continued: ‘You lowered your jeans to the top of your thighs. You were manipulating him to your own end.
‘You demanded to have sex with him as you already had your jeans down by your ankles?’
Denying this, the woman said: ‘Even though I was drunk, Sgt Cocking could have told me to get out of the car. ‘
She says she remembers kissing the officer, who didn’t ask her to stop, and says he told her to be quiet when the radio on his chest went off.
Mr Tully suggested she directed Sgt Lee Cocking to a farm gate 200 metres up the road, but the woman said she only recalls stopping in the toll road.
The woman added: ‘All I can remember is that we were struggling in the car. He was in the driver’s seat and I sat on top of him with my back against the steering wheel.
‘My leg was beside the door and we got out to have sex. It was in complete darkness.
‘I recall being in the driver’s door opening, facing over the vehicle, with Sgt Lee Cocking behind me. I think we had sex that way, but I cannot actually remember.
‘I am certain about what happened in the bits that I do remember. But I do recall him telling me not to tell anybody as he would lose his job.’
The woman said she was not certain if she gave her phone number to Sgt Lee Cocking after being dropped home, but told the court he ‘must have got it from somewhere as he rang me’.
She recalled how she thought it was ‘strange’ that she woke up with her shoes missing and nothing on the lower part of her body.
The woman added: ‘I remember thinking I don’t actually recall having sex, but I know we did as my inside felt different.’
She said she didn’t call police immediately as she was embarrassed but that thinking about an on-duty officer having sex in the car made upset her.
The woman added: ‘I now wish I had never phoned the police. It has caused so much hassle. I felt for him as he did tell me not to say anything. Nothing bad happened to me, I wasn’t raped.
‘When the police knocked on my door I wasn’t really interested in being part of their investigation. I didn’t want my family to find out.
‘After a while I just wanted it to go away. All I wanted to do was tell the truth. I had never been this drunk before.’
Sgt Lee Cocking has pleaded not guilty to misconduct in a judicial or public office and told jurors he felt that he had been the victim of a sexual assault himself.
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