Ex-police officer charged with gross misconduct after sex assault convictions

Lee Parker kissed a woman while holding her face and smacked another on the bottom while he was drinking at Roxy’s Ballroom in Leeds, in December 2021.

He also indecently exposed himself on the same night, when he was off-duty.

At Manchester Magistrates’ Court in January the former PC was convicted of two counts of sexual assault and one count of outraging public decency.

He was sentenced to 32 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years, and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

West Yorkshire Police said the former officer, who was based in Wakefield, has been charged with gross misconduct and will face a disciplinary hearing begins on Thursday.

Parker has already resigned from the force but he could be barred from working as a police officer in the future.

It comes after former West Yorkshire Police PC Jacob Swallow was found guilty of gross misconduct because he punched a handcuffed 17-year-old boy in the face.

Footage from body-worn cameras of his colleagues show he hit the teenager, who was arrested after he became aggressive at a family party in Keighley in June last year.

Swallow claimed he had used “a pre-emptive strike” to “shock” the boy and “prevent him from harming himself” in the back of a police van.

But a misconduct panel ruled “there was no justification” for the punch and said “there was no threat at the time to the former officer, his colleagues or others”.