A London Met police officer has been charged with rape, the second since the jailing of PC Wayne Couzens for the murder of Sarah Everard.
The Metropolitan Police service said on Wednesday that Police Constable Adam Zaman, aged 28, had been charged by the separate City of London Police that day.
Zaman, who serves in the East Area Command Unit, was arrested on Sunday over an alleged incident on the evening of Saturday, 24 October, in the City of London, the British capital's ancient business district. Zaman was off duty at the time of the alleged crime, the statement said.
Zaman has been suspended and force's Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed, while the case has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Zaman was later jailed on remand pending trial. Among new details that emerged at the hearing was that the alleged attack took place at a hotel near Liverpool Street station, and that the accused "strenuously denies" the charge.
Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Trevers, Policing Commander for the East Area Command Unit, said the force understood the public's worry over the latest case involving an officer.
"I recognise that the public will be concerned to hear that a serving police officer has been charged with such a serious offence", Trevers said. "We absolutely share that concern".
"We acted swiftly when this allegation was reported to us and have fully supported what continues to be a thorough investigation by detectives from the City of London Police. Specialist support is being provided to the complainant", he stressed.
"PC Zaman has now been charged and it is important that criminal proceedings are allowed to take their course", Trevers continued. "Nothing should be said or reported which could put the integrity of those proceedings at risk".
Couzens was given a rare whole-life sentence last month for the kidnap, rape and murder of Everard, who he abducted from London's Clapham Common on 3 March while off duty and out of uniform on the pretext of arresting her for breaching COVID-19 regulations.
Couzens, then a serving firearms officer in the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit, drove Everard in a rented car to near his home in Kent where he raped and strangled her before hiding her body in woodland. He later returned with petrol to burn her body, which he submerged in a pond.
Just three days after Couzen's sentencing, PC David Carrick — a member of the same VIP protection unit — was charged on 3 October with an alleged rape in Hertfordshire the previous day, when he was off duty and out of uniform.
Everard's murder prompted demands for the Met's already-controversial Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick to resign, for all officers to be re-vetted and for new legislation to punish violence against women more harshly and even criminalise misogyny as a "hate crime".