A POLICE officer and Army veteran denied ‘preying’ on two ‘vulnerable’ women, asking why both rang or texted him after the alleged sexual attacks.

Michael Darbyshire gave evidence from the witness box at Worcester Crown Court where he is on trial for rape and five counts of sexual assault. Prosecutor Andrew Jackson said today: “What you did was to pick a woman who was vulnerable, who was easy prey.”

But the defendant asked why both women had ‘phoned me or texted after I was supposed to have committed these offences to make sure I got home okay’.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between August and November 2019. The 55-year-old, whose address cannot be published, accepted asking out one of the complainants and discussed going out for a coffee with her in Worcester, telling the jury that she had put his number in her mobile phone.

He accepted that he had followed her out into the beer garden of the White Hart pub in Fernhill Heath. Mr Jackson put it to him that the garden was a more private part of the pub and it would be ‘easier for you to effectively pounce on her’.

Darbyshire replied ‘no, not at all’. The prosecutor told Darbyshire he had wanted sexual contact with her ‘as quickly as possible’ and again the defendant replied ‘no’. He also denied calling her a ‘dirty girl’ or fiddling with her knickers or saying that he ‘couldn’t wait to rip them off’.

Darbyshire explained that he had been in the Royal Corps of Signals and denied he had told the alleged victim he was a paratrooper. He added: “I didn’t need to big myself up.”

When he later attended her address he said he was there ‘at her invitation’ and added: “I didn’t just turn up out of the blue.”

He denied stripping off in her kitchen and standing naked and in a state of arousal, saying the only thing he had taken off downstairs had been his shoes. He said she told him she had told him she had enjoyed their encounter. The trial continues.