Gross misconduct case proven against disgraced Yorkshire police officer

Paul Hinchcliffe, 46, was told he would have been sacked by South Yorkshire Police, if he had not resigned at an earlier date.

The former PC faced a disciplinary hearing earlier this month, after he was convicted of sexual assault at Leeds Crown Court.

The court heard he was off duty when he pulled an 18-year-old woman’s top down and photographed her breasts during a night out, in October 2020.

The victim also claimed Hinchcliffe and another officer groped her and made a series of inappropriate comments, while they were drinking at a Wetherspoons pub called The Church House, in Wath-upon-Dearne.

During the trial, the married father-of-four denied wrongdoing and claimed the woman had allowed him to take the photograph.

Hinchcliffe, who had a role training other officers at the time but was suspended after the allegations came to light, will be sentenced at the same court later this month.

During the trial, the jury was told Hinchcliffe, the victim and three other people had been drinking together, after planning to meet up on Whatsapp, and there were a lot of “childish jokes” and “sexual innuendo”.

But the victim said Hinchcliffe and another off-duty officer took it to “a very sinister level” and it started to feel “a bit overwhelming”.

“Things just started happening and it just was getting weirder and weirder, and there were just a lot of hands on me,” she told the court. “It was coming from both sides. They were both on me.”

When she was discussing “a boob job” with the other woman at the table and said she had “a chest like a 12-year-old”, Hinchcliffe told her she had “a bum like a 12-year-old”.

She also claimed Hinchcliffe took a photograph of her wearing her glasses later that night and showed everyone else, saying: “I’m going to have a w*** to that".

He then started flicking beer foam at her and pulled her top down so he could take a photograph of her chest, she added.

But Hinchcliffe then told the jury the woman pulled her own top down slightly, told the group she wanted a “boob job”, and allowed him to hold it and take a photograph.

She did not respond when he took the photograph but was laughing with other members of the group and did not look uncomfortable, he added.