Police officer 'recorded raping a woman on her iPhone's sleep app'

'She ended up recording a little bit more than she intended - we have them and we're going to play them to you,' jurors were told

Research has warned that the methodology used by many apps lacks adequate scientific grounding (iStock)

A Metropolitan Police officer was recorded raping a woman with a sleep app she had installed on her iPhone, a court heard.

Michael Graham, 47, who worked in the London borough of Hounslow, is accused of raping the woman seven times between December 2013 and September 2014 while off-duty.

Prosecutors told the court Graham was "increasingly ill-tempered" after giving up cigarettes, the Mirror reported.

Jurors heard he told the alleged victim she "needed to be punished" and would tie her up and rape her.

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall told the jury some of the alleged offences were recorded on the woman's iPhone.

She said: "The complainant had a sleep app that was set off by sound, it's an app you can have on your mobile phone - people use it so that when they talk in their sleep or snore they can gauge their sleep behaviour.

"She ended up recording a little bit more than she intended - we have them and we're going to play them to you."

She added: "There's times on the recordings when she says 'please don't do that, please don't do that' and there are two occasions of anal rape recorded on the sleep app."

Ms Marshall continued: "It's plain from the recordings that at the time the sexual assaults are taking place he's hurting her she doesn't want him to carry out those acts.

"She clearly tells him she doesn't want him to do those acts.

"We say he knew she wasn't consenting, he knew she didn't want him to do those things but he carried on regardless - using her fear and her submission for his own ends."

Graham denies seven counts o rape and one count of sexual assault.

He insisted the sex was consensual when played the sleep app recordings in his second interview with police.

The trial continues.