Jailed, PC who begged teen to delete evidence of their affair
A MARRIED police officer who had a sexual relationship with a ‘vulnerable’ teenage girl and then begged her to destroy evidence of their affair has been jailed.
PC Gavin Donaldson, 45, was helping to investigate allegations made by 17-year-old victim Anisha Yaseen when he took advantage of his position.
The father of one and the teen exchanged close to 30,000 messages during a four-year period. But when he began to be probed by Police Scotland’s anti-corruption unit, he bombarded the woman, now 23, with requests to delete all their messages and not to give officers her mobile phone.
Donaldson was sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday after admitting attempting to pervert the course of justice in November 2020 at a hearing last month.
He had not guilty pleas to six charges of conducting searches on the police system without consent accepted by the Crown.
Prosecutor Joanna Waller told the court the officer first met Ms Yaseen when she was 17 while he was investigating allegations of crimes against her in May 2016.
Donaldson, of Dalkeith, Midlothian, gave the teenager his personal email address and went to her home on several occasions.
The pair were said to have been in ‘daily contact over four years’ with 28,133 WhatsApp and Snapchat messages exchanged between them, along with 200 emails.
Ms Waller said the officer and the woman were in ‘a consensual sexual relationship’ that did not involve sexual intercourse.
The anti-corruption investigation into the officer uncovered the relationship in November 2020 and he was placed on ‘restricted duties’. During the probe, Donaldson made a desperate 40-minute call to Ms Yaseen pleading with her to delete all their messages and not to hand over her mobile phone.
The officer was suspended from duties on November 25, 2020, and later resigned from the force.
Jailing him for 14 months yesterday, Sheriff Douglas Keir said: ‘This is a very serious offence, involving your attempts to instruct a vulnerable young woman to destroy evidence of the relationship you had conducted with her.
‘You maintained contact with her, engaged in frequent communication and then formed a consensual sexual relationship.
‘When you suspected police were investigating, you repeatedly instructed her to delete all evidence from her phone, suggested she did not hand over her phone and attempted to influence what she should say to police officers. All of this was done while you were a serving police officer, which is a significant aggravating factor.’
Ms Yaseen, who waived her right to anonymity, spoke outside court after last month’s hearing. She said she was ‘a product of failed systems in Scotland’ and did not realise she was being ‘groomed’ by the officer.
She added: ‘To know he has admitted his guilt is, to me, his confirmation the stable period in my life was a lie – something I don’t know how to come to terms with.’ Ms Yaseen also asked for any other potential victims of Donaldson to come forward.
Chief Superintendent Catriona Henderson yesterday said: ‘Gavin Donaldson abused his position.
‘When this matter came to light, we took swift action to hold him to account.’
‘Donaldson abused his position’