West Mercia Police officer guilty of two off duty assaults

Catley resigned from the force while the investigation was ongoing (generic image)

A police officer "let down his profession" by assaulting people while off duty, his former employer said.

Lewis Catley, 26, a former PC with West Mercia Police based in Bromsgrove, was convicted after being found guilty of two counts of assault by beating.

The two separate incidents happened in Telford in September and in Stourbridge in October.

At Kidderminster Magistrates' Court on Friday, he was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison, suspended for one year.

West Mercia Police said Catley, of Arundel Road in Stourbridge, had let down his colleagues, his profession, and the communities he served.

"There is absolutely no place for this behaviour within West Mercia Police," Deputy Chief Constable Julian Moss said.

"The force will not tolerate it, our officers will not tolerate it and I will not tolerate it."

Catley resigned from the force while the investigation was ongoing, however his conduct will be discussed at an internal professional standards hearing at a later date, police said.