Ireland Murdock: ex-Met Police officer, 27, jailed for raping woman and searching her name in police database

A former Metropolitan Police officer has been jailed for four years after being found guilty of rape.

Ireland Murdock, 27, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on Thursday (29 June) for raping a woman, who was known to him, at her home in Lambeth, south London, in September 2021. He was at the time a serving Met Police officer.

The disgraced ex-PC, who before his dismissal was attached to the Central North Command Unit, was also jailed for an additional six weeks for searching his victim’s name and accessing her restricted crime report on a police database “without any reason to do so,” the force added. He did this after the woman reported that he had assaulted her.

Murdock was dismissed from the Met in July 2022 after he pleaded guilty to “unauthorised access to computer material”. He was also added to the barred list, meaning he cannot work for the police, local policing bodies, or watchdog the IOPC.

In a powerful victim impact statement, the woman described how in the months following the assault she felt “violated”, was in “physical and mental pain”, and “never felt completely safe”. She said she was “worried he would come to [her] house any day,” adding: “I trusted him and he broke my trust when he raped me.”

Commenting on the verdict, Ch Supt Carter, in charge of policing for the Central North Basic Command Unit, said: “Murdock committed an absolutely atrocious offence, and caused his victim a lot of pain and fear. He betrayed everything we stand for and I am disgusted by his actions.”

Carter also thanked the victim, who said initially she did not feel “safe” to report the crime, for her “courage and bravery in coming forward”. He continued: “I would also like to thank those who investigated him for building such a strong case that led to him being found guilty.

“We are determined to have a Met that the public can trust, with officers that people feel confident to approach. When someone fails to meet these standards, we will take action to remove them from our organisation.”

Stephanie Dodd, senior crown prosecutor within the rape and serious sexual offences unit in CPS London South, added: “As a police officer Murdock was expected to adhere to the strictest standards of behaviour and professional conduct. He has grossly abused his authority and exploited his position. He ruined the public trust in his service.

“Sexual offences are some of the most complex cases that we prosecute. I hope these convictions provide the victim with some closure and encourage other victims of such crimes to come forward and report their attackers.” She added that the CPS is “committed to bringing sexual predators to justice regardless of the time that has passed.”

In mitigation remarks, defence lawyer Luke Ponton told the court that Murdock, who was investigated by the Serious Sexual Offences Department - commonly known as Sapphire - based at Brixton Police Station, had suffered from a difficult childhood during which he was in and out of foster care.

He requested the judge disregard the fact that Murdock was a serving police officer at the time of the assault because he said his job had had no relevance to the events that had taken place, which happened while he was off-duty.

But Judge Usha Karu told Murdock that he had severely impacted the victim with his actions and had “breached her trust”. She did add however that she had taken into consideration the fact that the 27-year-old had “no previous convictions”, and had “already suffered by losing employment as a police officer”.

Murdock will serve at least half of his sentence.