When a colleague at their local police station took his own life, a junior officer sent a message of support to a husband and wife team of officers sharing who were sharing condolences.
The death rocked the regional Victorian station and the couple planned an evening of drinks to commemorate their fallen friend, inviting the junior officer and her partner - who was also an officer at the same station.
The husband, a now-retired leading senior constable, was jailed for nearly five years on Tuesday for the rape and sexual assault of the junior officer who was stationed alongside him for three years.
A jury found the retired officer, who was then 41 and had worked at the local highway patrol division for 15 years, had repeatedly forced his junior colleague to touch his genitals in a shed at his home.
When the younger officer, then 29, went to bed with her partner, her senior colleague sent a series of sexual messages, including urging her to go back outside for a "three way" with his wife.
"Just sleep it off and you'll feel different tomorrow," she wrote, repeatedly telling him no.
He then appeared in the bedroom doorway.
When she got up, she pushed him out of the room and told him to pull his head in.
Instead, he pushed and pulled her and sexually assaulted her while she panicked and felt herself go vacant.
Then he raped her. She broke free and went back into the bedroom, where she tried to wake her partner.
"I want to f--- you ... do you want to f--- me," the man then said to her in a message, to which she replied no.
The County Court judge who sentenced the senior officer on Tuesday said he had placed the young woman in a position of having to manage his insistence she engage in sex with him, while also trying to preserve some sort of friendship or working relationship with both him and his wife.
"She was vulnerable and empathetic towards you, and wanted to support you during a tough time," the judge said.
Initially she said nothing but later confided in her partner and another officer at the station who had been a mentor to her.
The senior officer was interviewed a month later and claimed they had engaged in some consensual sexual activity.
He continues to deny any wrongdoing, which the judge said would affect his prospects of rehabilitation.
The junior officer felt degraded, humiliated and blamed herself for not stopping the man, the judge said.
She also felt ostracised, embarrassed and isolated both socially and at work as a result of his actions.
He has since been convicted of sexually assaulting another police officer in NSW a month after this offending.
The senior officer, who has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions linked to his job as a first responder, admitted turning to alcohol to deal with his emotions, while also engaging in multiple surreptitious affairs.
He retired from Victoria Police in 2021.
He was jailed for four years and nine months, and must serve at least two-and-a-half years before he is eligible for parole.
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