Cop was pals 'with benefits' to vulnerable woman and visited for 'fun in bed,' court hears

A young woman, who claims that a police constable called at her home while on duty for sex sessions, told a court today that they were “friends with benefits.”

She said that Greater Manchester Police officer Shamraze Arshad, 31, described by the prosecution as “arrogant”, would come round for 15 - 20 minutes for “a fun time in bed.” He would sometimes come round in his uniform and then after the sex he would say before leaving, “okay, bye,” reports Manchester Evening News.

The cop denies having a sexual relationship with the woman, but she told the jurors “maybe he would say anything to defend himself. The situation we had was very simple, it was friends with benefits.”

She said claims that she had threatened to kill herself if he stopped contact were not true. When Arshad’s barrister Peter Wright, KC, suggested that she had not wanted the tryst to end “and sadly made up a story,” she replied, “No.”

Arshad had met the vulnerable woman after cops were called to her Fallowfield home in October 2020 when she was highly distressed, drunk and suicidal.

The officer submitted a care plan for her after she was taken to hospital and having finished his shift “that should have been the end of the matter”, said Jamie Baxter, prosecuting. However, later that morning while off duty he used his police mobile to access the secure police system and the log about the incident.

Once he found her personal details he began calling her at 8.02 am on October 28, 2020 - just hours after she had been taken to hospital.

“In the days that followed he began asking her to go on a date and over the weeks and months thereafter his contact with her continued and what resulted is that the defendant, a serving police officer, began an intimate and ultimately sexual relationship with this vulnerable young woman whom he met in crisis.

“Far detached from the knight in shining armour she initially thought he was, we suggest that she was selected by him because of those very vulnerabilities which caused him to first meet her and that he abused his position as a serving police officer, gaining her trust, in order to sleep with her. His concern was not her wellbeing, but rather his own sexual desires,” claimed Mr Baxter.

By the following April or May, she decided to end their casual relationship, which had been known only to them.

However, cops investigating Arshad recovered messages between the pair, shedding light on their true relationship, claimed Mr Baxter.

Arshad was arrested on 19 July 2021 and made no comment when interviewed. He was released on bail on condition not to contact the woman in any way - but he immediately visited her at home.

The woman was out but he returned at 9.30 am the following day and woke her by banging on her window. Scared about why he had attended, she hid in the bathroom and called the police.

Arshad, of Ascott Close, Lostock, Bolton, who joined GMP in October 2018, is on trial after pleading not guilty to misconduct in public office.

The woman, who was 21 at the time of the alleged offence, and was not born in this country, told the jury today (Tuesday, June 11) that she had trusted him as a member of the police.

Mr Baxter said the defendant claims he had been “simply checking up on her because he was concerned for her safety. He denies ever asking her out on a date or having any kind of physical or sexual relationship with her.”

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