A Norfolk police officer committed sexual assault against a female coworker while on duty and transmitted explicit texts to members of the public. The alleged sex offender will not be prosecuted or named though thanks to him working for the police.
The unnamed officer resigned from the police force in January 2024 following the allegations brought against him.
A disciplinary panel has determined that his actions constituted gross misconduct and that he would have been terminated had he still been an officer.
Norfolk Assistant Chief Constable Nicholas Davison, who presided over a misconduct hearing last month, stated that the gravity of his conduct was “extremely high.”
The ex-officer was determined to have sexually assaulted the woman, also a Norfolk police employee, on two instances in April 2020.
The misconduct panel said he had “conducted himself in a sexualised and forceful way towards a colleague without consent and whilst on duty. He thereby undermined public trust and confidence in his role and the police authority”.
A further allegation that he had sent the same female colleague an inappropriate sexualised video was found not proved.
However, the panel found he had engaged in several sexually explicit WhatsApp conversations with members of the public between January and June 2023, while he was meant to be on duty.
Norfolk Constabulary said a criminal investigation had been conducted into the allegations, but no further action was taken.
Following representations on his behalf, the chairman for the misconduct hearing ruled that the former officer’s identity could not be revealed.
Identified only as ‘Former Officer Z’ he did not give evidence at the hearing, but had previously disputed that he had sexually assaulted his colleague.
But he admitted that it was “inappropriate” for the WhatsApp conversations to have taken place while on duty.
The panel found he had breached the force’s social media guidelines and that messages had been “neither professional nor appropriate”.
It is the latest Norfolk misconduct case to involve officers accused of inappropriate relationships or sexual behaviour.
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