33-year-old Dion Arnold has a ‘deep-seated need to control women’
A Metropolitan Police officer with a “deep-seated need to control women” has been jailed for 25 years for a series of rapes and sexual assaults.
Dion Arnold, 33, used his status as a police officer to gain the trust of vulnerable women he met on dating apps and social media, then acted out his fantasies of non-consensual sex.
Guildford Crown Court heard he raped one of his victims when she was asleep, choked a woman with a scarf until she fell unconscious, and told one victim he wanted to role-play breaking into her house to lay in wait.
One of Arnold’s victims fell pregnant and had to have an abortion after being raped, and the court heard she twice attempted suicide in the aftermath.
Another woman recalled Arnold once telling her: “What are you going to do – call the police? I am the police.”
On Monday, Judge Deborah Charles sentenced Arnold to 25 years in prison with an added eight years on licence, telling him: “You have a deep-seated need to control women.”
The former Police Constable, who had worked on domestic abuse cases for the Met, kept a list on his phone of more than 30 women he had slept with, noting down their medical conditions against their names.
After the first complaint of rape was made, detectives used the list to track down other victims.
The judge said Arnold had shown little remorse and harbours “deep levels of misogyny”, and concluded he had targeted women once he realised they were vulnerable and less able to resist his sexual demands.
Turning to his use of his police status, the judge said: “I’m sure you told these women what you did for a living early on in order to ensure the women you offended against placed their trust in you.”
She added: “You liked role-playing rape and were aroused by the idea of having sex with a woman who was apparently not consenting.
“That is not illegal, but what you went on to do most certainly is.”
Arnold, who also served as an Army reservist medic, was found guilty at trial in April of four counts of rape, two charges of sexual assault by penetration and two charges of sexual assault.
Three of the four women met Arnold through dating apps like Tinder, and felt reassured about their safety after learning that he was a serving police officer.
“His job as a police officer appealed to me,” said one. “It gave me a green light to trust him and meet with him.”
She told the court she suffered a mental health breakdown after abuse at Arnold’s hands, she had to temporarily give up work, and made two suicide attempts.
The woman added that Arnold’s offending has “broken my trust in the law”.
“It made me feel so much more violated, that if he – as a police officer – didn’t think what he did was rape, will the rest of the police?”
One of the victims agreed to sex with Arnold with a “safe word”, and told the court he then ignored the prompt to stop when she called it out.
Another victim told the court she debated whether to give a statement against the “exceptionally calculating” Arnold because “I believe he will find great pleasure in knowing the harm he has caused me”.
She said Arnold used a “boyfriend playbook” to lure her in, using a “curated act to break down my barriers and ultimately any resistance to the abuse he subsequently subjected me to”.
“I can’t overstate just how strongly Dion and his treatment of me has shaken the foundation of my sense of self,” she said.
“He kept a list in his phone, categorising over 30 women seemingly by medical conditions. It makes me sick to my stomach that I have been reduced to my disability.”
She added in her statement that she has now “lost faith in the judicial process” after having to give harrowing evidence during Arnold’s trial.
“It felt like I was on trial, not him, and despite the overall verdict I do not feel justice has been done,” she said.
“I am proud of the fact I came forward, but if I was in that situation again I wouldn’t support a criminal investigation.”
Arnold, who has been in prison since his arrest in March 2025, was sacked by the Met in the wake of his convictions.
The trial heard how he had “giggled” after carrying out one sexual assault, while one of his victims doubted she had been raped at all because of Arnold’s status as a police officer.
The court was presented at trial with “glowing” character references from Army colleagues, and the judge was told on Monday that he has now been diagnosed with compulsive sexual behaviour disorder.
“Arnold deliberately targeted women that he thought would not stop him and would never have the courage to report him,” said Claire Gallagher, senior crown prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service.
“They have proved him wrong and have seen him brought to justice for his appalling crimes.”
The judge imposed a 25-year restraining order on Arnold contacting his victims, he is on the sex offenders register for life, and subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
He must serve at least two thirds of his 25-year prison term before applying to the Parole Board for release, and he will serve an extra eight years on licence once the prison term has ended.
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