Lee Cocking: Police panel accept ex-sergeant's sex assault claim

Lee Cocking was acquitted of criminal charges in 2021

A police misconduct panel cleared a former sergeant of having sex with a vulnerable woman on duty because it accepted his claim he was the victim.

Lee Cocking was accused of taking advantage of the woman after she was ejected from a Weston-super-Mare bar.

The panel cleared Mr Cocking but no reasons were given at the time.

Its findings, now published, say the panel accepted it was more likely he was a victim of a sexual assault rather than the sex being consensual.

The panel, overseen by a legally qualified chair who is independent of the police, also criticised investigating officers for failing to pursue a number of lines of inquiry.

This, the ruling says, indicated officers had already concluded "who was a victim and who was a perpetrator", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

The woman involved, who cannot be named for legal reasons and was referred to as Ms A, declined to take part in the hearing, and has never claimed the former sergeant sexually assaulted her during the incident, which took place on Christmas Eve, 2017.

The panel was told after she was thrown out of the Skinny Dippers bar, Mr Cocking, of Cheddar, gave the woman a lift home in his unmarked police car.

'Gaps in evidence'

The panel's written decision admitted Mr Cocking's case was "difficult to believe" when first examined.

"The panel appreciates the headline of this case is a sober police officer had sexual contact with a drunken woman to whom he was giving a lift home," it said.

"The most immediate conclusion is that he is at fault."

But it went on to say there were gaps in the evidence and it was "certainly not possible" to say Mr Cocking, 41, had lied.

"We find his version is more likely to be true than the suggestion that the sex between them was consensual," it concluded.

The ruling said his offer of a lift to a drunken woman alone with no money for a taxi after 03:00 GMT was "pragmatic policing" and he would have been criticised had he not "kept an eye on her".

It said despite Mr Cocking claiming in his first police interview in January 18 he was the victim, it was not pursued rigorously enough by investigating officers.

Questions over arrest

"Mr Cocking's allegation made her [Ms A] a suspect. She was not treated as one," the ruling said.

"No account was taken from her under caution, no doubt because the fear was that to caution her would be to silence her.

"We contrast this with the perceived need to arrest Mr Cocking rather than to ask him to attend a police station by arrangement.

"It is clear to us there was never any intention to treat her as a suspect."

During the two-week hearing at police headquarters in Portishead, the ex-officer said he felt "numb" and had "complete panic" as the woman straddled him and attempted to have sex.

Mr Cocking, who retired from the force in July on medical grounds, was acquitted by a Gloucester Crown Court jury last year of a criminal charge of misconduct in a public office.

The police misconduct panel ruled he did not breach standards of professional behaviour for police officers in relation to honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct.