South Wales Police officer guilty of falsely accusing student

PC Abubakar Masum was found guilty of perverting the course of justice after making a series of false accusations

A police officer has been found guilty of perverting the course of justice after making a series of false accusations.

PC Abubakar Masum made calls to Crimestoppers about a 23-year-old student between March and July 2020.

He accused her of drug dealing, storing a gun and killing an Albanian gangster before dumping the body in the sea.

Cardiff Crown Court heard PC Masum developed an "obsession" with the woman after they met at a nightclub.

• Police officer 'made false claims' to Crimestoppers

• PC who accused student of gun crime 'not obsessed'

PC Masum was also found guilty of gaining unauthorized access to a police computer.

After being arrested, the police officer admitted making the calls but said they'd been in "good faith", based on posts he'd seen on the woman's Snapchat account.

The woman was studying criminology at Swansea University and was interested in joining the police when she met PC Abubakar Masum

The false tip-offs led to armed police raiding her home and questioning her over a planned murder.

The woman was later arrested while at work in a Swansea Tesco store.

It's estimated the false reports to Crimestoppers took up around 200 hours of police time.

Fellow South Wales Police officers found no evidence the woman was involved in any criminal activities.

When asked by Graham Trembath, defending, if he was obsessed with the student, he said: "Absolutely not. For a female that I've only met three times I don't think it's physically possible to be that obsessed."

The judge called for a restraining order to be placed on the officer to stop him contacting the woman involved.

He will be sentenced at a later date.