Ex-police officer barred after touching colleague

A panel said Luke Gilmour's actions towards a younger colleague were "demeaning"

A former temporary sergeant has been barred from policing after a misconduct panel found he touched a female student officer inappropriately without consent.

Luke Gilmour had already left Hertfordshire Constabulary when he was found guilty of gross misconduct by the panel in September.

The panel concluded Mr Gilmour was very drunk when he touched the female officer’s bottom and lifted up her top, both without her consent.

The force said he would have been dismissed had he not already resigned.

The student officer, who was still on probation, was supervised and line-managed by Mr Gilmour when the "demeaning" incident happened over the course of an evening, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The panel heard his behaviour continued even after she "had made it patently clear that it was unwelcome and inappropriate".

It concluded the actions were for Gilmour’s "sexual gratification", and that his behaviour was "intentional, targeted and deliberate".

'Imbalance of power'

The incident had had a "psychological impact" on the female officer, leading her confidence to be "knocked" and her to become "an anxious person", the panel heard.

Other serving police officers testified to how upset she had been and how out of character this was for a "usually confident, robust and good-natured officer".

The panel noted "a very significant level of intoxication" on Mr Gilmour’s part, and the "imbalance of power" between the officers.

The female officer had asked for a day off work after the incident and then requested to move teams.

Mr Gilmour supplied a note referring to his "respect and friendship" for the female officer.

But the panel’s report said Mr Gilmour had not shown remorse, adding: "The fact that he did not appreciate that what he had done was wrong and create an opportunity to apologise, rather than seeking to put the blame on others for failure to challenge him, speaks to a lack of insight in this case."

It added there was likely to be "reputational harm" to the force "as a consequence of Mr Gilmour’s behaviour".