Exclusive:Ex-Waterlooville police officer jailed for sex offences against male victims in Hampshire police stations
Gerard Hutchings took advantage of males who had been arrested for minor offences, the court heard.
A former police officer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexual offences relating to unnecessary strip searches on young men in custody.
Gerard Hutchings, 67, a former inspector with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, abused 18 male victims - aged between 17 and 31 at the time - at various police stations across the force area between 1999 and 2007.
Bristol Crown Court heard how Hutchings carried out the offences while alone with the victims, who had been arrested for minor offences, and sexually assaulted some of them during the procedures. He admitted 17 counts of misconduct in public office and was then convicted of a further 11 charges relating to sexual offending following a 10-day trial in March.
These charges were five indecent assaults, five of causing a person to engage in a sexual activity without consent, and one of misconduct in public office. For a time, Huntchings was stationed in Waterlooville, as well as spending time in the New Forest and the north of Hampshire.
Judge William Hart said: “Any decent and professional police officer, and thankfully almost all police officers fall into that category, would be sickened by your exploitation of these young men. All the offences involve abusing your power and position of authority as a police inspector to conduct, in private, completely unwarranted strip searches of male detainees and, in the case of those who gave evidence in the trial, to indecently assault them and cause them to engage in sexual activity against their will and without their consent.
“You enjoyed both the humiliation and obtained some perverted sexual gratification from what you did.
“This was a course of abusive conduct, stretching over many years and involving many victims.”
Judge Hart commended officers from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary who had investigated Hutchings, who he said “may well have restored the faith of many victims in the police”.
People in the public gallery, including victims, clapped from the public gallery after this remark.
The judge also commended the victims for their bravery.
Hutchings, from Southampton, was sacked in 2007 and jailed for 16 months at Lewes Crown Court the following year after admitting 10 counts of misconduct in a public office for similar offending.
Police launched a fresh investigation in 2020, following a new report, and used Hutchings’ police notebook along with custody records to identify 373 people he had been in contact with at police station. All of these people were visited by officers, with 17 of them providing video statements detailing how they had been subjected to unwarranted strip searches by Hutchings.
Prosecuting, Simon Jones said: “The case concerns misconduct in public office and sexual offending by the defendant, a former police inspector, who repeatedly over an eight-year period abused his position of authority by conducting strip searches of young men who had been arrested and were in his care.
“The defendant used his position of authority and the guise of these searches to indecently assault and cause sexual activity to be engaged without the consent of the victim in this case.”
Representing Hutchings, Pauline Thompson said her client suffers from ill health and was “ashamed and embarrassed” that it had taken him a long time to realise the impact of his offending on the victims.
Anthony Johns of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Gerard Hutchings carried out a sustained abuse of power, using his position as a police inspector to target young men who were entitled to expect lawful and professional treatment.
“He exploited his authority to subject victims to humiliating and unjustified strip searches before sexually offending against them.
“Working closely with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, prosecutors built a compelling case from the accounts of 18 victims, exposing a pattern of offending that spanned almost a decade and demonstrating that compliance obtained through the misuse of authority is not consent.
“I would like to pay tribute to the victims for the courage they have shown in coming forward. Their evidence was vital in bringing Hutchings to justice.”