Police officer sacked after 'suggesting threesome' to vulnerable woman

Darren Booth, 40, 'exploited the power imbalance' between him and his victim, a panel found
PA

A police officer who propositioned a vulnerable woman for sex while on duty has been sacked.

Darren Booth, 40, made sexual advances to the victim, known as Miss A, after he was called to deal with reports of anti-social behaviour in Castleford, West Yorkshire, last year.

Miss A, 36, told a four-day hearing how the police constable asked her for sex and suggested she arrange a threesome.

Pc Booth met the woman again at the flat where she was staying after he finished his shift and asked to kiss her while making further sexual comments.

The 40-year-old denied the claims and said he had been set up by the woman and her friend.

But on Thursday a panel, which included West Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Angela Williams, ruled that gross misconduct had been proved.

They ordered that the officer should be dismissed without notice.

The panel’s independent chairman Geoffrey Payne said Pc Booth’s explanation that he had gone to the flat to get legitimate information from Miss A after midnight, by himself and without telling anyone, was not credible.

He noted that when two police sergeants arrived at the flat – after they were tipped off by Miss A – Pc Booth gave no explanation for why he was there in “highly irregular” circumstances.

Instead, he just looked anxiously at the floor.

Mr Payne said: “It is significant that Pc Booth did not immediately ask to speak to one of the sergeants to explain his presence at the flat.”

He said that although Miss A was an alcoholic ex-drug addict with a string of convictions for dishonesty and Pc Booth was previously of exemplary character, this did not mean the panel should automatically believe his account.

Mr Payne said the panel found it was “unlikely” an officer would go to the lengths Pc Booth claimed to have taken to obtain the information he described.

The chairman said Pc Booth’s actions were aggravated by Miss A’s vulnerability, as she was a victim of domestic violence as well as an alcoholic former drug user.

Mr Payne said the officer’s behaviour was “sexually motivated and exploited the power imbalance between them”.

He said: “Pc Booth’s behaviour fell a long way below the high standards the public rightly expect of police officers.”

The hearing heard Pc Booth, who is from Castleford, had been with West Yorkshire Police for 14 years – five as a community support officer and then nine as an officer.

He denied all accusations during the hearing, which was held at a police station in Wakefield with a video link for press and public at another station in Normanton, seven miles away.

Nicholas Walker, representing Pc Booth, argued that his client should be given a final written warning.

Mr Walker said: “The consequences to him are likely to be ruinous.”

The hearing heard the officer’s father was also a policeman, with Mr Walker adding: “He comes from a proud local tradition and a proud local policing tradition.

“He is a decent and committed community officer.”

The barrister added: “He is someone who has made a lot of difference to people in his locality.”

Detective Superintendent Richard Crinnion, of West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate, said the force "demands the highest standards of professionalism and conduct from its officers and staff and the actions of Darren Booth in abusing his position clearly fell far short of what we and the public would expect.

“His behaviour in attempting to proposition and take advantage of a woman who he professionally knew to be vulnerable was clearly highly exploitative and utterly out of keeping with the basic values of the uniform he wore.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in