A former detective constable has been jailed for more than two years after ‘exploiting’ a woman whose case he had been working on.
A former detective who started a relationship with a “vulnerable” woman who had reported a sex offence has been jailed for two years and three months.
Wasim Bashir, 55, who had been working on the victim’s case, started a relationship with her after driving her to a video interview. A Judge pointed out he was also the officer who took a mouth swab from her as they gathered evidence.
A judge told the officer, who had been a specialist rape investigator, he had committed “gross breach of trust” and offending such as his, not only “impacts the victim” but also those involved in future cases, as they could feel they are unable to “trust the police”.
Bashir was found guilty of one count of misconduct in a public office for having a sexual relationship with the woman while working on a safeguarding team with West Yorkshire Police.
After he was jailed, West Yorkshire Police released a mugshot of its former officer, who retired in June. He had previously arrived in court with a mask over his face and a coat with a hood on.
Sheffield crown court heard the woman started a relationship with Bashir after reporting a sexual assault to police in 2020. Bashir and a female officer had been involved in taking her statement, but he’d got in touch with her a few days later and asked if she was OK.
The accused officer, the judge pointed out, had also taken a mouth swab from her and driven her to a video interview. The woman, who had mental health issues, said she was grateful for his concern and agreed to meet him for a coffee. The judge told how this contact between them had developed into a sexual relationship over June and July 2020.
During this time they had sex twice and he suggested to the victim they ‘should have a threesome’. At one point he slapped her and spat in her face, the judge said, which he said “illustrated” his real feelings towards her. “You were interested in your own sexual gratification rather than forming any meaningful relationship with her,” the judge told him.
He said the former officer was “careful to cover your tracks” by refusing to give her his personal phone number and telling her to delete messages. “You had a complete disregard for her safe guarding needs,” the judge added. The sexual relationship stopped in early 2021 , when she started seeing someone else.
The woman said they stayed in touch until she became aware he had posted photographs of the two of them on an adult “swingers” website presenting them as a couple. She said she contacted Bashir to protest about this, and he apologised and promised to delete it. Jurors heard the woman decided to report the relationship to police at the end of 2021.
In a victim impact statement read during Friday’s sentencing hearing, the woman said the man she was “supposed to trust” manipulated her and used her for sexual gratification. The statement read: “I should have been able to trust him due to the position he held within the police.”
In mitigation, Jason Pitter KC said the breakdown of Bashir’s marriage in 2017 had had a profound impact on him and he was a carer for his mother who had dementia. Bashir was cleared of another charge of misconduct in a public office.
Jailing him for over two years, Judge Charles Thomas said: “Your behaviour towards (the complainant) was a gross breach of trust…You prioritised your own sexual gratification.”
Prosecutor Tony Dunne previously said the woman said she had “lost all trust in the police” as a result of Bashir’s actions. Bashir was charged in 2023 after an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and West Yorkshire Police.
IOPC director Emily Barry said: “As a police officer, DC Bashir held significant power so to abuse his position for a sexual purpose was an invidious and corrupt use of that power.
“Despite being an officer with 28 years’ service, Bashir blatantly disregarded the rules designed to protect the public and maintain confidence in the police. His actions can only have undermined trust in policing.”
Det Supt Natalie Dawson, from West Yorkshire Police, said for an officer “to pursue a sexual relationship with a vulnerable woman who had come forward to report being victim of a sexual offence is nothing short of abhorrent”.
“I want to reassure victims of crime and the wider public that this former officer is not representative of our organisation.”
She said the force had taken “swift action” to suspend Bashir from duty, adding that although Bashir had retired the force would continue with professional misconduct proceedings “with a view to him being banned from gaining any further employment in the policing profession”.
West Yorkshire Police said after he was jailed: “Wasim Bashir, 55, who was working as a detective constable… was found guilty after forming a sexual relationship with a female victim of crime. Bashir has retired from the organisation but will still face misconduct proceedings.”