A police officer who had a threesome with a drunken woman and his colleague in his patrol car has today been spared jail.
PC Matthew Longmate, 47, was on duty with PC Daniel Nash, 41, in Chesterfield town centre when they offered the woman a lift home following an incident at the Association Bar.
The woman recalled having intercourse with Nash while she performed a sex act on Derbyshire Constabulary colleague Longmate on 4 October 2015.
Longmate denied but was convicted of one charge of misconduct after a week-long trial at Southwark Crown Court.
He told the court Nash had lied in his statement when he said they both had sex with the woman in their patrol car.
Longmate also claimed it would have been ‘physically impossible’ to have had a threesome in the vehicle.
He denied misconduct but a jury unanimously convicted him of the offence after a trial in November.
PC Matthew Longmate, 47, (pictured) was found guilty of one count of misconduct in public office by a jury at Southwark Crown Court. He was spared jail today
PC Matthew Longmate, 47, (left) and his colleague PC Daniel Nash (right) engaged in sexual activity with an intoxicated woman in the vehicle after she was ejected from a nightclub in October 2015, Southwark Crown Court heard. Both are pictured in 2022
Thomas Coke-Smyth, prosecuting, said: ‘She was so drunk and couldn’t remember and was vulnerable as a result.
‘She may have been targeted as a result of that vulnerability. This was a joint activity.’
Charles Blatchford, defending, said: ‘It was Nash that was goading him on.’
He told the court that Longmate’s mother, father and wife are ill.
‘Others may suffer disproportionately of he were given an immediate custodial sentence’
‘He is someone who had a stellar career and now has nothing. He could be usefully deployed and punished in the community.’
Judge Hehir had bailed the shamed officer following the trial so he could spend Christmas with his family.
He told Longmate: ‘The principle aggravating feature of your offence was that she was drunk and you and Daniel Nash were sober.
‘There is no suggestion from any evidence that this was anything other than consensual, but she made it crystal clear that she would never have consented to any intercourse with either of you were it not for her intoxicated state.’
Referring to the woman’s victim impact statement, the judge said: ‘She was mortified and humiliated by what happened.
‘Though she does not consider herself a victim it is perfectly clear that what you and Daniel Nash did had a long-lasting and negative effect on her life.’
Judge Hehir said such behaviour has an impact on public confidence in the police and ‘may deter vulnerable female victims of crime coming forward and reporting that crime’.
‘It is clear that as a police officer you were good at your job, and were well regarded by your colleagues but also by members of the public.
‘It seems that on one occasion you saved the life of a vulnerable woman. What a pity that you threw all that away in a moment of madness all those years ago.’
Former PC Daniel Nash (pictured) pleaded guilty to 14 counts of misconduct in public office last year. He died a month after sentencing
The two police officers are said to have offered the woman a lift home following an incident at the Association Bar
The court heard that Nash died in September last year, a few weeks after he was sentenced.
Judge Hehir said that he was prepared to suspend Longmate’s sentence, because Nash was given a suspended sentence as an act of mercy as he was dying from terminal cancer.
‘It is not just that you alone should end up in a prison cell when Daniel Nash did not, when he led you into your offending.’
The judge also referred to overcrowding in prisons.
‘I am entitled to have regard to that when deciding whether or not to suspend a sentence that is capable of being suspended.’
Longmate was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for 12 months.
He will have to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, which he will have 12 months to complete.
He was also ordered to pay £3,500 in prosecution costs, and will have nine months to pay.
Nash had used his job to pursue relationships with 13 women, including victims of domestic violence between January 2015 and December 2020, it can now be revealed.
The married cop was photographed having sex with one of his victims on a black leather lounge settee.
The image, circulated online, showed the officer in full uniform wearing his utility belt with his handcuffs visible.
Nash earlier admitted 14 counts of misconduct against him but he was given a two year prison sentence, suspended for two years, in August as an act of mercy because he was suffering from bowel cancer.
Jurors trying Longmate heard how the two officers preyed on the drunken woman after she was thrown out of the Association bar.