Top News

A police officer working in a specialist domestic abuse unit has been unmasked as a serial rapist who preyed on women he met through dating apps. Dion Arnold, 33, who works for the Metropolitan police - the same force as fellow sex beasts David Carrick and Wayne Couzens, now faces a lengthy jail sentence and will be sacked after being found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults on women.

Alongside his police job PC Arnold was also an Army reserves medic when he began scouring dating apps hunting for potential victims online. PC Arnold joined the Met as a special constable in 2014 before joining as a regular officer in 2016, where he was based on the South West Command Unit. In March 2025, the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards was contacted by colleagues from Surrey Police after a woman reported she had been raped and sexually assaulted by PC Arnold on a number of occasions between June 2024 and March 2025.

He was arrested by Surrey Police on 30 March and charged the next day. He was suspended by the Met shortly afterwards.

Detectives seized his phone and discovered a lengthy list of women's names on it, who were all contacted and that prompted three other women to reveal they had also been victims of rape or sexual assault. None of them knew each other.

In total, he was charged with 17 offences relating to four women, alleged to have taken place between June 2023 to March 2025.

A jury at Guilford Crown Court this week found him guilty of eight offences - four counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration and two counts of sexual assault.

In each of his attacks, which occurred whilst he was off duty, Arnold refused to stop after the women removed their consent to his actions.

Evidence from the women themselves and the messages Arnold sent them proved that he knew they were not consenting.

The women told his trial how they felt pressurised by Arnold and had to submit to him and that, when they repeatedly asked him to stop, he ignored them. One woman described how it was like the "shutters coming down".

While his attacks were taking place, when the woman asked him to stop, Arnold told one woman that she was enjoying it and, in another incident, told the woman to "get used to it".

In another recovered message he acknowledged he should have stopped when told and in another, he agreed he had "taken things too far". One woman even suggested following his attack that the policeman should "watch an educational video on consent".

Chief Superintendent Dan Knowles, who leads policing in the South West where PC Arnold worked, said: "The victim-survivors in this case have shown enormous courage by coming forward and reporting PC Arnold's crimes to police, as well as giving evidence in court.

"Their testimony has played a crucial part in his conviction and in ensuring that he won't be able to treat any other woman in this deplorable way.

"We are sickened that PC Arnold carried out these horrendous crimes while serving as a police officer in the Met, something he deliberately told the victim-survivors from the outset so that they would have more trust in him.

"We do not underestimate the impact that cases like this have on the confidence that women and girls have in our organisation but would encourage anyone in a similar situation to report allegations.

"As part of our unprecedented drive to improve standards, we have grown our professional standards teams over the last three years to ensure we are robust in investigating matters at the earliest opportunity. We have invested in more officers who are specifically and proactively focused on uncovering and dealing with wrongdoing, including our specialist Public Protection team."

Investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Jon Smithers of Surrey Police said: "I would like to commend these women for their bravery in giving evidence against Dion Arnold during the investigation and at trial and ensuring that he has been brought to justice for his callous behaviour and crimes.

"Arnold deliberately targeted women safe in the knowledge that he could sexually assault and rape them against their consent and that they would not report him to the police for whom he worked.

"These women believed that they could trust Arnold because he was a police officer. It was clear from the victims' interviews that they felt they should comply with, and even forgive, Dion Arnold's behaviour.

"This does not mean they were not victims of his crimes.

"As a police officer, Dion Arnold abused his position of trust to commit crimes against these women."

Claire Gallagher, senior crown prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "These women believed that, as a police officer, they could trust Arnold and would be safe with him. He abused that trust in the most appalling way.

"As a police officer working with victims of domestic abuse, Arnold knew exactly what the law of consent means. These women asked Arnold to stop and he knew that, even referring to it in messages between them.

"The impact that Arnold had on these women cannot be underestimated. One told him in messages that he had "destroyed and broken her", while another described feeling "powerless" and that she had no option but to submit. In law, that is not consent.

"Arnold deliberately targeted women that he thought would not stop him and would never have the courage to report him. They have proved him wrong and have seen him brought to justice for his appalling crimes."

Arnold will be sentenced on Wednesday 22 June and remains suspended from duty.

The Met insists that following a number of sickening cases involving its officers its vetting and professional standards processes has been "transformed" whilst 378 officers have left the force after Operation Onyx reviewed 1,636 completed sexual and domestic abuse cases to check they had been dealt with correctly.

The force says it has also "relentlessly pursued" and removed those who did not meet the standards expected with around 1,500 officers and staff departing since 2022.