Man ‘humiliated’ during strip search by police inspector, court hears
A man arrested for shoplifting was allegedly subjected to a “humiliating” strip search by a police inspector during which he was indecently assaulted, a jury was told.
The man, who was in his early 30s at the time, had been arrested in 2000 with his girlfriend for stealing a pair of sunglasses.
Bristol Crown Court heard he was taken from his cell at Farnborough police station in Hampshire to a private office where Gerald Hutchings was.
The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the jury: “I only have one thing to say to the court.
“If anyone has been arrested, they will know this – there was no protocol to the arrest.
“There was no charging or being brought in front of the custody sergeant.
“I was ushered out of the police station very quickly by two officers and taken back to our vehicle.
“There was nothing ordinary that day. He was trying to humiliate me. I am well aware of the things done to me and he was trying to humiliate me.”
Hutchings, 66, a former inspector with Hampshire Police, denies a charge of misconduct in public office and two charges of indecent assault relating to this complainant.
Pauline Thompson, representing Hutchings, suggested to the man that his account of what happened was wrong.
“The defendant’s position is that it didn’t happen. There would have been a search in his office,” she said. “He would have asked you to take off your clothes and he would have searched each item of clothing.
“In terms of physical touching, that didn’t happen.”
The man replied: “That’s not how it happened.
“I have been strip-searched before and there was no following of the rules whatsoever. He never took any interest in my clothing.”
Miss Thompson asked: “He certainly did not ask you to bend over and touch your bottom?”
The man replied: “He certainly did.”
The complainant told the court he had put the incident out of his mind until the police knocked on his door in 2023.
“Everything came flying back at that point when I was reminded of an arrest that should not have been done or carried out,” said the man, who at the time was a drug user.
“There were abnormalities about that day that I remember very clearly.
“I do believe he took great pleasure in pointing out what a piece of scum I was and people like me should not walk the earth, or words to that effect.”
The jury has been told that eight complainants allege they were abused by Hutchings at police stations in the Hampshire area over an eight-year period.
The complainants – aged between late teens and early 30s – had been arrested for minor offences, such as shoplifting and possessing cannabis.
The prosecution alleges they would then be taken to Hutchings’ office, where he told them to strip, part the cheeks of their buttocks, lift their genitals and retract the foreskins of their penises.
Hutchings has pleaded guilty to seven counts of misconduct in public office relating to seven of the eight complainants but denied any sexual touching.
The defendant, of Ashurst, Southampton, denies five charges of indecent assault, five of causing a person to engage in a sexual activity without consent and one of misconduct in public office.
The trial continues.