A police officer who pulled down a younger lady’s prime and photographed her breasts throughout an evening out has been jailed.
Married father-of-four Paul Hinchcliffe, 46, was despatched to jail for eight months on Friday by a choose who informed him his behaviour ‘betrays your fellow officers who do an honest, dedicated job and makes ladies mistrustful of the police power’.
Leeds Crown Courtroom heard that the 18-year-old complainant stated in an affect assertion: ‘All my belief for the police simply went.
‘I used to really feel secure after I noticed cops. I by no means assume that now.
‘He sexually assaulted me when he ought to’ve been in a task that protects folks.’
Hinchcliffe, who resigned from South Yorkshire Police after his conviction, was discovered responsible of sexual assault earlier this yr.
A jury heard that the incident occurred when he was in a gaggle together with different officers who have been consuming at a Wetherspoons pub in Wath upon Dearne, South Yorkshire, on the afternoon of October 3, 2020.
Choose Robin Mairs recounted the drunken occasions within the bar, reminding the defendant how he took {a photograph} of the lady carrying her glasses and confirmed everybody else, saying: ‘I’m going to have a wank to that tonight.’
He then began flicking beer foam at her chest in what the choose determined was him simulating semen.
The choose stated Hinchcliffe pulled open the lady’s prime and photographed her breasts inside her bra whereas making orgasm noises earlier than sending the picture to a colleague.
The girl, who lived together with her dad and mom, was at dwelling later when she bought WhatsApp messages from Hinchcliffe with an image of her accompanied by what the choose known as ‘masturbating emojis’.
One message stated: ‘God I’d do you, is that dangerous?’
Katherine Pierpoint, defending, urged the choose to droop the jail sentence.
She stated her shopper’s drunkenness throughout the occasion was no excuse, and was an aggravating issue, but it surely is perhaps an evidence for his ‘utterly out-of-character’ behaviour.
She pointed the choose in the direction of a raft of references from colleagues about his service throughout a 20-year police profession.
‘He mustn’t have gotten himself into that state,’ the barrister informed the courtroom.
Ms Pierpoint harassed that, in contrast to some latest high-profile instances, this was not a case of a police officer utilizing his place to commit an offence.
However she conceded: ‘He ought to’ve know higher than anybody how any individual on this scenario would’ve felt.’
Choose Mairs rejected the plea to droop the jail sentence, noting that Hinchcliffe was coaching pupil cops on the time of the offence.
He stated the 46-year-old breached the requirements he was tasked with instilling into recruits.
Referring to the references he had learn, the choose stated Hinchcliffe’s behaviour on that afternoon was ‘scarcely credible within the gentle of that background’.
He stated the behaviour of Hinchcliffe and different officers that evening ‘went far past jokes and banter’.
Choose Mairs informed Hinchcliffe: ‘You have been in your 40s and she or he was an 18-year-old lady.
‘This was not dedicated while you have been on police duties but it surely was dedicated within the firm of different cops.’
He stated offences of this sort ‘cut back public confidence and cut back public belief within the police power’.
He stated Hinchcliffe, who stood within the glass-fronted dock carrying a light-weight blue go well with, white shirt and blue tie, shall be added to the intercourse offenders register for 10 years.
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