A police inspector accused of pleasuring himself while phoning women he traced via the force database has been formally cleared of all charges.
Baljit Singh, 52, of Leicestershire Police, was alleged to have used his office phone to make the calls.
He denied 17 charges of misconduct in a public office between December 2005 and January 2006.
A judge at Northampton Crown Court ruled, even if true, the alleged crimes did not warrant a criminal charge.
Mr Singh was alleged to have traced 10 different women who had been victims of a number of crimes including domestic violence and harassment.
A spokeswoman for Leicestershire Police said he had since resigned from the force.
At Northampton Crown Court, Judge Richard Bray ruled there was no case to answer as the allegations did not amount to such a serious case of misconduct to warrant a criminal prosecution.
Giving his ruling, Judge Bray said: "The alleged victims were quite unaware of the defendant's alleged misconduct and would have remained unaware had the police and CPS not brought the matter to their attention.
"I am satisfied that the defendant had no thought whatsoever that there would be any consequences for the victims.
The judge said there was no evidence of any injury, distress or financial loss.
"The behaviour alleged does not amount to the offence of misconduct in a public office."
But he added: "I wish to make it perfectly clear it does not follow from this decision that this court condones conduct of this kind.
"Any serving police officer who behaves in this way is clearly unfit to be a member of the force and should be dismissed."
Judge Bray stressed his verdict was based on the prosecution evidence, adding: "It was a judgment I made on the allegations, not my findings on [Mr Singh]."
In a statement Leicestershire Police said: "When concerns are reported about the conduct of an officer the police service has a duty to investigate those concerns."
It added that an "exhaustive" investigation had been carried out into the case by the professional standards department and evidence gathered had been put before the CPS.
The statement concluded: "We are currently considering our options at this time and it would therefore not be appropriate to comment further." |