Police officer sacked for propositioning woman for sex during call-out

A police officer accused of propositioning a vulnerable woman and suggesting she arrange a threesome has been sacked.

PC Darren Booth, 40, was said to have made the unwelcome approach while responding to a reported antisocial incident on duty.

He later arrived at the woman’s flat but was escorted away by officers after she tipped police off.

PC Booth denied ever asking the woman, known as Miss A, for sex and that he met up with her after his shift “for legitimate policing reasons”.

However, a police misconduct panel found his explanation was not credible, and that gross misconduct had been proved, leading to PC Booth’s sacking.

Geoffrey Payne, the panel’s chairman, said the officer gave no explanation for why he was at Miss A’s flat in “highly irregular” circumstances and had looked anxiously at the floor.

Payne said the panel found it “unlikely” an officer would do what PC Booth had done to get intelligence from a woman who had not given him any information previously, and said his actions were aggravated because of Miss A’s vulnerability.

She was a victim of domestic violence as well as an alcoholic and former drug user.

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

“PC Booth’s behaviour fell a long way below the high standards the public rightly expect of police officers,” he said.

The hearing was told he began flirting with Miss A, 36, after being sent to the reported antisocial incident in Castleford, West Yorkshire, in March 2019.

Miss A said: “He basically said he wanted to meet up on a regular basis for sex and if you can get someone else involved it would be even better.”

She said the approach made her feel “sick and confused”. After PC Booth made plans to meet later, she tipped off police on 101.

The panel was told he made more inappropriate comments and asked for a kiss at her flat.

Officers then turned up to escort him from the property, the panel heard.

She said she agreed to meet with him so he could be caught, adding that a “copper should not be trying it on with me like that”.

She agreed she was an alcoholic with a criminal record stretching back 16 years, with 56 separate offences from 27 incidents – including assaulting a police officer.

Claire Watson, for the West Yorkshire Police professional standards department, said Miss A was left with anxiety and feeling “shocked and disgusted”.

PC Booth, who the panel heard is married with children and has been a police officer for nine years, told the hearing he had been “set up”.

He said went to Miss A’s flat because he was gathering intelligence on counterfeit cigarette operations, and that she said she had information but did not want to tell him about it while he was in uniform with others around.

Asked how he felt when two officers arrived at the flat following Miss A’s tip-off, he said: “Shock. Why were the police there? Were they on a drugs raid?

“I didn’t know what was happening.”

PC Booth said he neither told his superiors nor made any record of his planned visit to her flat because he wanted to be the “golden boy” and bring in important intelligence.

He said the move was “stupid” and “the biggest mistake” of his life.

Asked by Watson why he said nothing and did not explain himself to the officers who arrived at the flat, Booth said: “It just looks bad that an officer is in a room with two known criminals.”