A Harrogate area police officer has been dismissed from North Yorkshire Police for gross misconduct following a drunken Friday night incident at the Black Sheep Brewery in Masham.

According to the report of his disciplinary hearing last month at North Yorkshire Police’s Northallerton headquarters, Police Sergeant 1101 Mathew Baldwin was attending a Christmas social event with other officers at the brewery on December 1, 2023, and became intoxicated.

Sexual assault allegation

At about 11pm, a male member of the public touched the skirt of one of PS Baldwin’s female colleagues, and an allegation of sexual assault was made. The police were called and the man was arrested by PC Brogden.

On hearing of the alleged assault, PS Baldwin aggressively approached the suspect with a glass in his hand, called him a “f***ing pervert”, and told him “You’re going to get locked up”.

When PC McVay tried to move Baldwin away from the suspect, Baldwin told him to “get the f*** off me”.

At one point, Baldwin took hold of the suspect and pulled him back towards the bar, causing him to fall to the floor.

Drunkenly pulled rank

Although officially still a sergeant, Baldwin was at time acting inspector, and drunkenly pulled rank, shouting at another officer, PC Ferguson, that he was the senior officer and saying that he was giving her a ‘lawful order’ to separate the suspect from his wife.

When PC Brogden arrived, he took the male suspect upstairs to a more private location to speak to him. Baldwin followed, ignoring colleagues who tried to stop him, and approached PC Brogden and the suspect, aggravating the situation and making the male’s wife upset. PC Brogden asked him to go back downstairs, but he refused.

Baldwin then told PC Brogden that he was putting himself on duty and claimed he was giving PC Brogden a ‘lawful order’ to arrest the male.

When PC Brogden tried to explain that he was dealing with the situation and he would make the decisions, Baldwin did not accept this and refused to go back downstairs.

Assaulted suspect's wife

After the man had been arrested and placed in the police van, Baldwin then physically prevented PC Brogden from speaking to the male’s wife, pointing his finger in PC Brogden’s face and telling him to “just go now”.

Baldwin then took hold of the suspect’s wife and assaulted her by pushing her back towards a hedge. When PC Brogden tried to intervene to stop Baldwin assaulting the man’s wife, Baldwin said “I’m giving you a lawful order, just go”, and pushed him towards the police vehicle.

When other officers intervened and moved Baldwin away, Baldwin confronted one of them, PC Stimpson, and in a heated exchange told him to “f*** off”.

Barred from policing

The three-member police disciplinary panel heard that PS Baldwin had a good professional track record and that his behaviour on the night in question was out of character. There was also evidence that PS Baldwin was at the time suffering from mental ill health, and that personal circumstances not detailed in the report may have influenced his behaviour.

Baldwin was found to have breached four separate standards of professional behaviour laid down in the 2020 police regulations. Despite mitigating factors, it was decided that the repeated verbal abuse, the unlawful use of physical force against members of the public and officers on duty, and the repeated issuing of unlawful orders while intoxicated all pointed to a verdict of gross misconduct.

It was also noted that Baldwin's conduct in relation to the assaults was criminal in nature.

In determining the appropriate sanction, the panel noted that:

It considered lesser penalties, but ultimately decided that dismissal without notice was the only measure that would meet this standard.

PS Baldwin was also placed on the College of Policing ‘barred’ list. This means he may no longer work as a police officer anywhere in the UK.