South Yorkshire Police officer photographed woman's breasts

The case is being heard at Leeds Crown Court

A police officer pulled down an 18-year-old woman's top and photographed her breasts, a jury has heard.

Paul Hinchcliffe, 46, denies one charge of sexual assault while he was off duty during a night out at a pub in Wath-upon-Dearne, near Rotherham, in 2020.

In a police video interview played at Leeds Crown Court, the complainant told how she had gone home "hysterical" and "cried her eyes out".

The South Yorkshire Police officer claimed the incident was consensual.

In the interview, the woman said she and the defendant were part of a group drinking in the pub on 3 October 2020.

"The first odd thing was he made comments about my bum and said 'every time you get up to the toilet, I've had a look'."

The woman, who was then 18, said the defendant had made a number of suggestive comments.

He had been flicking foam from his beer on to her glasses, which she first thought was "a laugh", the court heard.

"He was throwing it down my boobs," she said. "Then he got his phone and kind of pulled my top open and took a picture down my top."

She said PC Hinchcliffe told her he would send the picture to a friend who had been unable to join them.

She said she went home to an empty house and "absolutely cried my eyes out - I was absolutely hysterical".

The defendant later sent her a sexually suggestive message on WhatsApp, the jury was told.

PC Paul Hinchcliffe, 46, has been suspended from duty pending the trial

The woman said the group at the pub had been talking about her plans for breast augmentation.

She said she had mentioned she had a "chest like a 12-year-old" and Mr Hinchcliffe had said: "You've got a bum like a 12-year-old."

She told the interviewing detectives the experience had left her negatively conscious of her body: "I feel like I don't want to go out in low-cut top and leather trousers any more.

"At the same time I feel guilty. I don't know why. I feel like I could've said something at the time."

Louise Reevell, prosecuting, told the jury how the defendant presented a prepared statement at one of his police interviews denying he had assaulted the woman.

In the statement, he said the group had been discussing the woman's "boob job" when she opened up her top and pulled it down to show her cleavage.

The officer, from Wath, said she consented to him taking a photo, which "everyone found hilarious".

The trial continues.