A former Greater Manchester Police officer who had sex sessions with a vulnerable woman while on duty has been put behind bars.
Shamraze Arshad, who was previously based at Longsight station police, met the woman after he and a colleague were called out to her student accommodation in south Manchester when she was suicidal in the autumn of 2020, a court was told.
He 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’, prosecutor Jamie Baxter said. But later that morning while off duty, ‘arrogant’ Arshad, from Bolton, used his police mobile to find her personal details and began calling her just hours after she had been taken to hospital.
READ NEXT: Inside the huge drugs lab branded ‘one of largest cooking operations in the UK’
The 38-year-old repeatedly asked her to go on a date then ‘began an intimate and ultimately sexual relationship with this vulnerable young woman whom he met in crisis’.
On Thursday, after a four-day trial at Liverpool Crown Court, he was convicted of misconduct in a public office. Today (June 14), he was jailed for four years.
Following his sentencing, bosses at GMP have described him as a ‘disgrace to the police service’. Arshad, a father-of-two, was sacked from the force in January this year, the force said, after a trial in July 2023 found him guilty of perverting the course of justice and data misuse as part of the same case.
Police chiefs will now write to the Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester to ask that he loses his police pension. The court heard how the investigation began in July 2021 after a routine audit check by GMP’s Professional Standards Directorate (PSD).
The check found Arshad had been using police systems while off-duty and without a policing purpose. The probe then revealed he had been ‘making a large volume of contact’ with a particular number from his work phone.
This number was linked back to the vulnerable young woman. It was then uncovered that Arshad had been having sex with the victim while on duty.
Mr Baxter said: “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.”
After about seven months she ended their casual relationship, which she described to the jury as involving ‘friends with benefits’ and said he would come round for 15 – 20 minutes ‘for a fun time in bed’. Arshad was arrested and suspended on July 19, 2021 and released on bail on condition not to contact the woman in any way – but he immediately went to her home.
As she was out he returned the next morning and woke her by banging on her window. The frightened woman hid in the bathroom and called the police.
He was arrested again the following day for attempting to pervert the course of justice and later charged. During the trial, Arshad denied ever having sex with the complainant.
Arshad, of Ascott Close, Lostock, Bolton, was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice and unauthorised access to the police computer at a trial last summer. That jury was unable to reach a verdict on the misconduct offence leading to this week’s re-trial.
The jury of three women and nine men took just 75 minutes to find him guilty. He shook his head and repeatedly muttered ‘oh my god’ as their verdict was delivered in court yesterday.
In a statement to the court, the victim said: “This man took advantage of me and his position in his job. As a police officer that is not professional, it is also inhumane, taking advantage of a young girl.
“He has ruined the image of the great British police. This is not just about him but the while police system in the UK.”
Defending, Peter Wright said: “He is disgraced, dismissed from the force and faces a perilous and uncertain future as a serving prisoner. He has squandered a promising career by his own acts and he has squandered the support of a loyal family by virtue of his conduct bringing shame upon them as indeed upon himself.”
Following his sentencing, Detective Chief Inspector Dave Jones, of GMP’s Professional Standards Directorate, said: “I want to thank the courageous woman in this case for providing us with the evidence that was so important in ensuring that Arshad is rightly held accountable for the full extent of his crimes. He abused his position as a police officer to pursue a sexual relationship with a vulnerable woman who he was supposed to protect in her time of need.
“This is an unforgivable breach of policing standards and it’s right he will never be trusted to wear a police uniform again. Arshad’s jail term is fully deserved. He is a disgrace to the police service and does not represent the thousands of professional, honest, hard-working police officers across Greater Manchester who continue to protect the public each and every day.
“As soon as we were legally able to, we sacked Arshad and, now that criminal proceedings have been concluded, we will invite the Deputy Mayor to strip him of his police pension.”
Read more of today’s top stories here
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
