Edinburgh crime: Police officer Johnathan Dunlop found guilty of sexually assaulting friend in Edinburgh

He has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a drunk friend

A police officer has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a drunk friend while she stayed over at his flat.

Johnathan Dunlop, 32, stripped the woman naked and groped her after she returned to his home following a night out with his former partner. The disgraced constable also pulled the victim’s trousers and underwear down during the shocking attack in Edinburgh last year.

Dunlop claimed the sexual contact between the pair had been consensual but he was found guilty on Friday of sexual assault following a three day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. The woman, who said she had been friends with Dunlop for several years, broke down in the dock as she described how the officer had sexually assaulted her on December 4 last year. She told the court she had been out socialising with Dunlop’s former girlfriend and returned to stay overnight at his flat at the capital’s Bonnington area.

Johnathan Dunlop outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court

The woman, who cannot be identified due to legal reasons, said the police officer made up a sofa bed for her to sleep on and had pounced on her after she had returned from using the bathroom. She said: “Johnny was in the living room when I came back from the bathroom. He came over to me and lifted up my top and my breasts were exposed. He was standing directly in front of me. He looked at me and then put both hands on my breasts. I didn’t really know what was going on.”

Prosecutor Xander van der Scheer asked the woman: “How would you characterise the touching?” She replied: “Groping.” She added: “After this he took off my trousers. I was standing. He was standing. He had his hands on my hips and pulled them down. All I remember is that my pants are coming off and I thought ‘why are my pants coming off?’”

The fiscal depute asked if the woman had consented and she replied “no, not at all”. She said she was “frozen” during the attack and that “the next thing I remember I was lying on the bed”.

She said: “I don’t really know how I got there or if I was conscious the whole time or not. When I was lying on the bed I was completely naked. He was standing in between my knees. He was just standing there and that is when the alarm bells went off.”

The woman said Dunlop later “kept apologising” to her for carrying out the sex attack and she had felt “disgust and revulsion” afterwards. She told the court she had been sick into a saucepan following the attack and after speaking to friends she reported the incident to the police.

Dunlop, from Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, told the court he was a police constable and had been friends with the woman for several years. He said the sexual contact between the pair had been consensual and it was he who had stopped it due to them both being in a relationship with other people.

On Friday, Sheriff Julius Komorowski found the constable guilty of sexually assaulting the woman by placing his hands under her clothing, fondling her breasts and removing her trousers and underwear at a flat at West Bowling Green Street, Edinburgh, on December 4 last year. The sheriff also found Dunlop guilty of a separate charge of intending to cause a second woman to be present while a third party was engaged in sexual activity at a property at Albion Gardens in Edinburgh on July 9, 2018

He was also acquitted of a separate charge of sexual assault on the second woman during the 2018 incident. Dunlop was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and sentence was deferred for social work reports to be prepared to next month.

A Police Scotland spokesperson: “We are aware of the outcome of the court proceedings and a report is being prepared for the Chief Constable. This behaviour does not represent Police Scotland’s values or standards of professional behaviour.”