Police constable weeps as she tells hearing Cleveland Police officer ‘pushed groin against her’

A young police constable sobbed as she told a misconduct hearing she “just wanted it to stop” when a fellow officer “pushed his groin against her” during a self defence class.

A Cleveland Police officer is facing a total of 16 allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards female students during his training in 2020.

The man, known as Officer A due to an anonymity order, was just six weeks into his time with the force when three female colleagues reported his “sexist, sexual and misogynistic comments,” a disciplinary panel heard.

One of the women also alleges he touched her on several occasions by picking her up and carrying her, trying to put her in a restraint hold, and one “particularly serious matter that could be described as a sexual assault,” Stephen Morley, for the prosecuting authority, told the hearing in Stockton.

Mr Morley said that after Officer A started his training, some of his female colleagues “pretty quickly” became uncomfortable with his behaviour, saying he had been “making sexual comments and had an apparent lack of boundaries in front of female students”.

He is alleged to have “sexualised” conversations about primary school teachers and microwave meals, asking one female colleague if she had a “sexy nurse outfit” at home, and another if she was “going to use her handcuffs on her fella when she got home”.

Officer A denies all the allegations and has accused the three women of “launching a campaign of falsehoods against him,” Mr Morley said.

The officer denies some of the incidents altogether, and says some of his comments have been “misconstrued” and were meant to be “jokey”, the hearing was told.

One of the female officers, known as Witness A, claimed that Officer A responded to a comment she made about her primary school teacher by saying: “The important thing is, did she have a nice pair”.

Witness A also alleged that Officer A also said to a male officer in front of her: “I know you’ve got a girlfriend but do you ever walk down the street and see a fit lass and give it a proper look?”

The female officer said Officer A also “kept touching her” even though she asked him not to, picking her up on two occasions and trying to put her in a restraint hold.

The panel heard that on one occasion Witness A was doing an exercise during a self defence class where she had to bend over and protect her head while other officers had to hit her with foam pads. The aim of the exercise was for the officer to get away, it was said.

Witness A told the hearing that while this was happening she felt Officer A go behind her and push his groin into her bottom as she was bending over.

“Because of the scenario I was in, you’re supposed to be quite vocal and shout back with people,” Witness A said.

“I remember feeling that I just wanted it to stop but they just thought because I was shouting ‘stop’, they thought I was just engaging in the task and they wouldn’t stop.”

The officer broke down in tears as she said: “That was the scariest bit because it didn’t stop.

“I was thinking, what do I do? Do I pretend to pass out or something and lay there and then it would stop?

“That period of time when I was bent like that, it just wasn’t nice because I wanted it to stop and it didn’t.”

She said although she was looking down at the time, she knew it was Officer A because of “situational awareness”.

“I knew where people were and who was around me. Through hearing people’s voices when they were shouting I could tell it was (Officer A) behind me," she said.

Another female officer reported five “sexual and sexist comments” that “made her feel uncomfortable”, including talking about her going home to use a vibrator, asking if she had a “sexy nurse outfit” at home and saying he “liked to be woken up by a blow job,” Mr Morley said.

A third officer, who also complained about Officer A’s “lack of boundaries” and “sexist behaviour,” described him making a comment about her “having sticky fingers”, the panel was told.

The officer also claimed that during a conversation about microwave meals, Officer A “turned the conversation sexual and made a comment along the lines of “I don’t like banging three birds at once, I only do twosomes,” Mr Morley said.

The hearing continues.

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