COP SACKED FOR ‘TRYING TO KISS’ WOMAN
GMP OFFICER DISMISSED ‘WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT’
A POLICE officer cleared of sexually assaulting a vulnerable young woman at a police station eight years ago has been sacked for ‘attempting to kiss’ a woman in her home, the M.E.N. can reveal.
Pc Gareth Roscoe, 33, was accused of trying to force his attentions on a 19-year-old woman but he was found not guilty of sex assault and misconduct in a public office following a trial in 2011.
But the officer faced fresh accusations of inappropriate behaviour in October 2016 and now, following a three-year legal battle which ended in the High Court, he has been sacked for gross misconduct.
He allegedly accepted a hot drink from a female member of the public at her home in Heywood , Rochdale, while on duty and then ‘acted inappropriately by attempting to kiss her.’
He left when he received a call over his radio to attend another incident. Pc Roscoe escaped with a final written warning at a disciplinary hearing where ‘gross misconduct’ was proven against him.
Bosses at Greater Manchester Police sought a judicial review of the panel’s decision and the High Court ordered a second hearing.
It took place on July 10 and the officer was dismissed ‘with immediate effect,’ the force has now confirmed.
Det Chief Supt Jon Chadwick said: “Following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct into allegations of abuse of position for a sexual purpose by a police officer whilst onduty, GMP held a public misconduct hearing which concluded in December 2017.
“An independent panel found the officer’s actions had amounted to gross misconduct and he was given a final written warning.
“The outcome of this was challenged and GMP supported a judicial review into the panel’s decision and as a result the High Court ordered that the hearing resumed. As a result of the independent panel’s findings, Pc
Gareth Roscoe has been dismissed from the force with immediate effect.
The public rightly expects the conduct of police officers to be exemplary and this type of conduct discredits the police service and is completely against all of the values and standards expected of a police officer.”
At his trial in 2011, the jurors heard allegations Pc Roscoe, then a probationer, asked a 19-year-old woman, who had been drinking vodka-Red Bulls earlier in the evening, to give him a hug, tried to kiss her and touched her intimately.
But Pc Roscoe denied that and said he had simply been protecting a vulnerable young woman who, at the time, had been distraught and anxious following the arrest of her boyfriend on suspicion of drink-driving.
The officer, who was based at Farnworth police station in Bolton, repeatedly rejected her allegations against him.
He told the jury that, in fact, it was the woman who ‘leaped’ at him, giving him a bear hug when in the interview room.
Mr Roscoe, from Leyland in Lancashire, declined to comment when contacted by the M.E.N.