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08
Aug
North Yorkshire Police officer who joked about woman colleague orgasming dismissed
A police sergeant who joked with a junior woman colleague about orgasming in her car has been dismissed.
PS Mark Grimes was found guilty of misconduct after a three-day hearing by North Yorkshire Police.
The panel heard PS Grimes made the comment in a Facebook conversation with the woman, known as Officer A, after she said a song she was learning on the guitar had come on the radio whilst driving home.
PS Grimes made a ‘sexualised’ and ‘inappropriate’ comment along the lines of, ‘I thought you meant you had cum in your car,’ according to a report into the hearing. The report, published today (August 8), added: “Officer A felt embarrassed by the comment. She considered it inappropriate because they were not close friends.”
PS Grimes joined North Yorkshire Police in 2013 after previously serving with Merseyside Police and was working as a custody sergeant at York’s Fulford Road station at the time.
Officer A, who joined as a student police officer in 2022, was a member of the force's response team at York.
The hearing heard PC Grimes, a fitness enthusiast and married father of two children, exchanged Facebook messages with Officer A between May 2023 and June 2023. Both parties had deleted their transcripts.
He was also alleged to have told her, “I bet you would look good in a sports bra” and “I bet you are into weird things in bed” but the panel said neither allegation was proved.
The panel, however, concluded PS Grimes’ orgasm comment “was clearly trying to make a sexual comment, that he had taken an entirely innocent message sent by Officer A and attempted to twist it into something else”. It added: “We find PS Grimes’ explanation implausible and non-sensical.”
The report said PS Grimes “asserts that, at all times, he has behaved professionally and appropriately in his interactions with Officer A”.
'He had a position of trust and responsibility'
Their exchanges came to light when Officer A talked to her line manager, but the report described her as “a reluctant witness who did not wish to be in attendance and did not wish to give evidence against PS Grimes”.
The panel found Officer A suffered psychological distress and PS Grimes breached the professional standards of behaviour relating to honesty and integrity; authority, respect and courtesy, orders and instructions and discreditable conduct to an extent that justified dismissal.
It said:
His level of culpability is high. The panel accepts that his act was spontaneous, not prolonged, deliberate or planned although he did have an opportunity to stop. The risk of harm was foreseeable. As a sergeant he had a position of trust and responsibility.
His actions damage public confidence in policing. Young women may be put off pursuing a career in the police service and members of the public may be put off reporting offences for fear of not being taken seriously. It is sexual misconduct. It involved misuse of his position of seniority to Officer A. As a student officer and junior to PS Grimes, Officer A had a level of vulnerability.
Following the outcome of the hearing, deputy chief constable Scott Bisset said:
The actions of this officer were unwanted and invasive and have no place in policing.
It’s essential that the communities we are proud to serve, and our own colleagues have total trust in us.
The officer has not only let the police service down but also his colleagues. It is important to say that he does not represent the hard-working officers and staff within North Yorkshire Police.
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