A police officer has pleaded not guilty to the rape of a teenage girl.

PC Leigh Brightman, from Hitchin, appeared at the Old Bailey for a plea and case management hearing today.

The 36-year-old denied all charges, including one count of rape of a girl aged between 13 and 15, and four counts of misconduct in a public office between April 2009 and June 2014.

He is also charged with making and possessing indecent images of a child. His trial at the Old Bailey is scheduled to start on November 2.

PC Brightman - who served as an officer in Watford, Rickmansworth and north Hertfordshire - was arrested in August and is currently suspended from Hertfordshire Constabulary.