Ex-PC 'misread signals' on drunken night out

A BRISTOL police officer who sexually harassed a female colleague on a drunken work social night out has been cleared of gross misconduct.

- ADAM POSTANS Local Democracy Reporter

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PC Keir Chesterton "misread the signals" when he placed his hands on the woman's waist and lower back on a nightclub dance floor.

An Avon and Somerset Police tribunal panel ruled he committed the lesser offence of misconduct, but because he has since resigned, could not impose a sanction.

A report by panel chair and former assistant chief constable Craig Holden said that despite the colleague, Ms A, telling the officer she had a boyfriend, and a male officer “shielding” her from him on the dance floor, he persisted.

But while it said this was “concerning”, PC Chesterton's conduct was at the “lower end of the sexual harassment spectrum” and would not “unduly concern the public”.