A police officer has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at a cemetery in Harrogate.

Christopher Hudson, 32, a Harrogate police constable, was accused of assaulting the woman in a car park at Stonefall Cemetery on Wetherby Road.

However, following a trial at Leeds Crown Court, a jury today unanimously acquitted Mr Hudson of the allegation.

The prosecution had alleged that Mr Hudson had stroked the woman on the back of the neck and ear and “pulled her…towards him” before kissing her.

Prosecuting barrister Gerald Hendron alleged that Mr Hudson then took hold of her hand and placed it on an intimate part of his body despite her telling him “no” repeatedly.

He alleged that Mr Hudson then put his hand on the woman’s inner thigh and that she was “shocked and confused”.

Mr Hendron said the woman had sought help from a counsellor about stress which was brought on by the alleged incident in February 2021.

'Inconsistencies'

However, defence barrister Rebecca Hadgett said there were “inconsistencies” in the woman’s account of events and that Mr Hudson “never touched her in the way she alleges”.

Mr Hudson, of Hollin Terrace, Huddersfield, was arrested in March 2021 when he denied sexually assaulting the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He was suspended from his job pending the outcome of the trial.

Mr Hudson, who worked for West Yorkshire Police before joining the North Yorkshire force in 2020, walked free from the dock when the jury returned its verdict a short time after retiring to deliberate.

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