Detective accused of pursuing relationships with sexual offence victims ‘damaged trust in police’
A detective accused of pursuing sexual relationships with reported sex offence victims whose cases he was investigating has “damaged trust in the police” according to prosecutors.
Listen to this article
Detective Constable Wasim Bashir was working in the Kirklees Safeguarding Team with West Yorkshire Police when he is alleged to have contacted three women inappropriately and started a sexual relationship with one of them.
Sheffield Crown Court has heard Bashir, 55, is accused of having sexual contact with a 22-year-old woman.
Giving his closing speech to jurors on Tuesday, prosecutor Tony Dunne said the woman Bashir allegedly had sex with felt safe with him because “you’re supposed to feel safe” with a policeman.
Mr Dunne said by the time the woman reported the relationship over a year later she had “lost all trust in the police,” saying: “They all just want to have sex.”
The prosecutor told jurors Bashir’s alleged behaviour would “damage trust in the police” and “cause all of you to be rightly concerned about whether people who reported sexual offences in the future would be properly and safely dealt with”.
The court has heard the 22-year-old woman said she started a relationship with Bashir after reporting a sexual assault to police in 2020.
She said Bashir and a female officer had been involved in taking her statement, but he got in touch with her a few days later and asked if she was okay.
The woman, who had mental health issues, said she was grateful for his concern and agreed to meet him for a coffee.
She said they later met at the Xscape centre in Pontefract, where he drove her to a quiet location and they had some sexual contact in his car.
The woman said she had sex with Bashir at her grandmother’s house on two occasions after that, but their meetings stopped when she started another relationship.
She told officers they stayed in touch until she became aware that he had posted photographs of the two of them on an adult “swingers” website presenting them as a couple.
The woman said she contacted Bashir to protest about this, and he apologised and promised to delete it.
Jurors heard the woman said Bashir would ask her to delete his messages, and used to tell her “that he shouldn’t be doing it and that I could basically ruin his life, he’d lose his job”.
She told officers: “Then he used to just say that he couldn’t wait for my case to be closed, because then it’d be different, wouldn’t it?
“I’m not classed as a victim in his eyes, then he can just crack on and do what he wants.”
The court heard when asked how she felt with Bashir, the woman said: “Safe. He’s a policeman isn’t he? You’re supposed to feel safe.”
Jurors heard the woman decided to report the relationship to police at the end of 2021, when she was in hospital after taking an overdose, saying she felt if she “got it out there” it would be less of a burden for her.
During the investigation into him, Bashir’s personal phone was also found to contain a screenshot of the Facebook profile of another woman who reported a serious sexual assault to West Yorkshire Police in June 2021.
Bashir has denied that any sexual relationship with the first woman took place, or that any of his actions were sexually motivated.
He told jurors that he had not been looking for a sexual partner since his marriage ended in around 2017.
In his closing speech to jurors, Jason Pitter KC, defending, said Bashir “would not throw away 31 years of good character” and that messages between him and the first woman showed her “seeking him out” for advice”.
Mr Pitter said: “The way he operates, for some of the women, may have blurred the lines, but that’s not what he’s accused of.”
Bashir was charged last year following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
West Yorkshire Police said he has been suspended from duty since his arrest.
Bashir denies misconduct in a public office and the trial continues.