An Avon and Somerset police officer will face a misconduct hearing after allegedly organising a “no strings” sexual encounter with a vulnerable victim.
The officer, identified only as PC Y, is accused of sending a photo of himself in uniform to the woman, X, to gain her trust.
She was a vulnerable victim of crime who had attended therapy sessions.
While on duty in September last year, the officer allegedly entered into a protracted sexual chat with her on Kik Messenger – a social media platform that allows users to remain anonymous – and then in December arranged to meet her.
The misconduct notice says: “In the context of organising a ‘no strings’ sexual encounter with X, PC Y disclosed that he was a police officer and shared an image of himself in police uniform.
“He did this to demonstrate to X that he was ‘genuine’ and / or to gain her trust in order to form a relationship for a sexual activity.
“In so acting, PC Y used his role as a police constable for personal gain and / or knew or should have known the associated risk of reputational damage to himself and / or the police force.
“PC Y knew or should have known from his exchange of messages that X was potentially a vulnerable adult. Despite being familiar with the concept of adult safeguarding he continued to engage in ‘sex chat’ with her and went on to engage in a sexual encounter with her.”
The officer has accepted that he should not have been engaging in a sexual conversation while he was on duty.
The notice says the public would find his alleged actions of real concern, and they could amount to gross misconduct.
The hearing will be held remotely on December 2.
