A serving Metropolitan Police officer is accused of "disregarding" a woman's limits when raping her at an Epping property.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard James Geoghegan had been drinking with the victim before returning to her home in Loughton at around 3am.

It is alleged the 27-year-old from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire then raped the woman.

The court heard Geoghegan had decided to sleep at the woman's house instead of returning to his home in Enfield, north London, before following the victim into her room “uninvited” later that morning as she was undressing.

Wayne Cleaver, prosecuting, told the court Geoghegan proceeded to try to take off the victim’s pyjama bottoms, to which she replied “stop, think about your girlfriend”.

The court heard that she repeated this several times to try to “discourage him”, as she was “not interested in intercourse”, but this was ignored.

After gesturing that she was not interested in going further, the alleged rape took place on her bed.

Giving evidence in court from behind a screen, the woman said: “I held on to my shorts for dear life to the point where my fingers hurt.”

She said that after the defendant removed her shorts she put her hand over her genitals to try to “block” him, but “he took my hand away and pinned it to the bed”.

Following the incident, the victim told a friend she had been raped and asked Geoghegan “do you remember me asking you to stop?” to which he replied “yes, I thought you were just playing around”.

Wayne Cleaver, prosecuting, told the court: “Clearly he heard her say ‘no’, he had heard her indicate that she didn’t want to have sex with him and he also acknowledged that she had indeed pulled her shorts back up when he first pulled them down.”

In text messages between the pair later that day, the victim told Geoghegan she had been crying and was “all over the place”.

She also told him “I’m upset James because I said no multiple times, but you carried on”.

Mr Cleaver went on to say: “The prosecution case is simple, (the victim) said ‘no’ and (the victim) said ‘stop’ and that is exactly what she meant.

“He accepted in the living room and later in those messages that he heard her say it more than once, but he took no notice of her.

“He disregarded her limits and decided instead to press on.”

Mr Cleaver added: “It was totally unreasonable, he had no reasonable belief that she was consenting, less still that she was inviting sexual intercourse with him.

“It may be that he felt that he had waited long enough and this was his opportunity to go all the way without any real regard to what she actually wanted and to what she was clearly indicating.”

He said that as a police officer, Geoghegan had “professional insight” on where “sexual boundaries may be crossed”.

The trial continues.