A POLICE officer has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in the sea on his own stag do.
Sergeant Laurence Knight attacked the victim in Brighton as she begged: “You’re getting married in two weeks.”
The horror ordeal took place just hours after Knight, 34, and his friends were entertained by strippers at their AirBnb for his stag-do.
Knight has now been found guilty of sexually assaulting the 21-year-old following a trial.
He was cleared of rape after more than seven hours of jury deliberations.
The officer, who was based at Stoke Newington Police Station in North London, bumped into the woman in the early hours on July 17.
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Jurors heard the pair were complete strangers to each other when Knight persuaded her to go into the water by moaning he was having a "rubbish night".
Maryam Syed, prosecuting, said: "She explained to police that he looked like he was going to cry, so she then relented and said yes.
"She did not wish to get her dress wet, so she went into the water wearing her underwear. She was not touching the defendant nor was he touching her at that point, they were simply treading water in the same area of the sea."
The woman told how Oxford University graduate Knight then came up behind her and assaulted her in the water.
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She said she told the officer to stop and kept asking what he was doing.
Following the attack, one of Knight's group came up to her and said: "Larry [Knight] wants me to tell you that he's sorry."
She later told friends: “I think I need to call the police. It is an emergency.”
Knight was arrested following the incident and was suspended from his role within the Met's Detention unit, which deals with custody command.
He denied raping the woman and claimed it was consensual when he touched her.
The Met has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Knight was granted unconditional bail ahead of sentence on a date to be fixed.
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