Police officer could be sacked after sexually assaulting woman on night out

PC Paul Hincliffe, 46, 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.

The married father-of-four denied wrongdoing during a trial at Leeds Crown Court last month and claimed the woman had allowed him to take the photograph, but he was convicted by a jury.

Hinchcliffe, who had a role training other officers at the time but is currently suspended, will be sentenced at the same court later this month.

South Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Department has announced he will face a misconduct hearing on Thursday, February 9.

He could be dismissed from the force without notice, if the disciplinary panel rules that his actions amounted to gross misconduct.

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 “silly, childish jokes” and some “sexual innuendo”.

But the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, 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.

Around two hours later, she went to the toilet and contacted her friend to ask for a lift home. Later that night, Hinchcliffe sent her a message which read: “God I’d do you, is that bad?” and she replied: “Yes, it is.”

But Hinchcliffe then told the jury the woman pulled her own top down slightly and told the group she wanted a “boob job” because she had “a chest like a 12-year-old”.

The police officer said he then held her top in the same position and asked if he could take a picture to send to a colleague.

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.

Hinchcliffe also denied groping the woman and said the other officer at the table “was a lot more touchy feely”.