Misconduct hearing for Met officer convicted of sexual offences

A Met officer will face a misconduct hearing following his conviction for multiple counts of rape and other offences.

Following an investigation by Surrey Police and a trial at Guildford Crown Court, on Thursday, 16 April PC Dion Arnold, 33, was found guilty of eight offences.

He will be sentenced at the same court on Wednesday, 22 June. He remains suspended from duty.

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."

Background

PC Arnold became a Met Police 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.

While continuing their investigation, officers at Surrey identified further victim-survivors of PC Arnold’s offending. In total, he was charged with 17 offences relating to four women, alleged to have taken place between June 2023 to March 2025.

Forensic examination of PC Arnold’s phone revealed that on multiple occasions he messaged the victim-survivors acknowledging he had “gone too far” and apologised for what he had done. Despite this, his pattern of offending continued, repeatedly ignoring the women when they told him ‘no’.

The jury found him guilty of eight offences - four counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration and two counts of sexual assault.

Londoners rightly expect the highest standards from our officers and staff and in the last three years we have transformed our vetting and professional standards processes as part of our New Met for London plan.

Operation Onyx reviewed 1,636 completed sexual and domestic abuse cases to check they had been dealt with correctly – 378 individuals left the Met as a result.

We have relentlessly pursued and removed those who did not meet the standards we expect - around 1,500 officers and staff have exited since 2022, at an unprecedented pace.

The confidence of our workforce to report wrongdoing has led to internal reports almost trebling over three years thanks to the courage and conviction of colleagues. This is testament to the decent majority of our people who have rightly stood up and refused to accept poor behaviour.