Police official cleared of rape

Greg Jones and his partner Tracy Comley leave court after acquittal

A senior police official has been cleared of raping a woman he met in a Swansea bar.

Greg Jones, 39, had denied three charges of rape, insisting he had "vigorous and consensual" sex with the complainant in September 2006.

A jury at Swansea Crown Court returned unanimous verdicts of not guilty after a two-week trial.

Mr Jones, head of human resources at South Wales Police, was also cleared of assault causing actual bodily harm.

After the trial, South Wales Police said Mr Jones' employment conditions would now be considered, and in the meantime he remained suspended from his job.

During the trial, the prosecution had claimed Mr Jones, of Sketty, Swansea, put the woman through an hour-long sexual assault at a house after a night out.

The jury heard he met the woman at a bar in the city last September when he was out celebrating a friend's 40th birthday.

He and a friend had paired off with the alleged victim and her female friend at the end of the evening.

'Rough sex'

The four had taken a taxi to the Swansea home of the complainant's friend, where the woman said she was raped.

The woman claimed that she made it clear she was not interested in sex, but as she sipped a coffee in the kitchen Mr Jones kissed her on the neck and then became aggressive and raped her three times.

The trial was told that the woman had bruising in 24 places on her body.

But Mr Jones told the court that he and the woman had "consensual" sex three times at the friend's house.

Under cross-examination from Dyfed Thomas, prosecuting, Mr Jones agreed that the term "rough sex" could be used to describe what they did together.

He said that several falls during the last time they had sex could explain the bruising.