A ‘Bad Cop’ Met Police officer had ‘lots of oral sex’ with a domestic violence victim after attending a 999 call to arrest her boyfriend, a court has heard. Daniel Humphreys, 38, concealed his face with a black mask, dark sunglasses, baseball cap, and large red umbrella as he left Southwark Crown Court after the first day of his trial for two counts of misconduct in public office on Monday (July 21).
Opening the case, prosecutor Lyndon Harris told jurors: “This case is about a former police officer Daniel Humphreys abusing his position as a police constable. It’s about him abusing his position to form an inappropriate relationship with a victim of crime, a victim he was investigating and responding to a 999 call, a victim who had been an alleged victim of domestic violence at the hands of her partner.”
Humphreys, of Chipstead Valley Road in Coulsdon, messaged the woman on his mobile phone ‘almost immediately’, and ‘not for any legitimate work purpose’, which compromised his independence as a witness, jurors were told. The relationship began with ‘flirty’ exchanges, then became sexual as the pair repeatedly met up to have sex around a year later, the court heard.
This accounted for the first charge of misconduct in public office, while the second count arose from the alleged transfer of images and documents to the woman from the work computer without a policing purpose. The woman wanted to apply to become a Special Constable, so Humphreys showed her body-worn video, witness statements, and legally privileged material, it is alleged.
Jurors heard how Humphreys was called to the woman’s address on July 4, 2019, in response to an allegation of assault against her boyfriend, who was arrested on his return to the property. Humphreys then stayed behind to take the woman’s statement while his colleague took the suspect back to the police station to process him in custody.
While Mr Harris conceded that police officers are encouraged to discuss things that will make the victim feel comfortable, like their shared interests and career ambitions, he also stressed: “It must not be a chance to make friends, nor is it a dating service for them.”
In the 12 hours after Humphreys left the woman’s home, they exchanged 74 messages, described by the prosecution as ‘mildly flirty’ and including Humphreys’ admission it would be ‘frowned upon’ by police colleagues.
Mr Harris said: “Not only is there an obvious power imbalance, but there is also the obvious risk of prejudicing a live criminal investigation. A victim of domestic abuse is inherently vulnerable. [She] was in a vulnerable position and she was entitled to rely on the officers attending to seek to be professional, observing appropriate boundaries, to support her but not allow a personal relationship to develop.
“The prosecution asks rhetorically: Is there a better example of a power imbalance than a police officer and a victim of domestic abuse?”
‘He did not think he was doing anything wrong’
As the relationship developed, Humphreys met the woman for coffee and brought her to police social functions, concealing how they had met, the court heard. The woman then began sending him images of her in ‘various states of undress’, while Humphreys shared details of his existing relationship with his partner. Their messages were ‘frequently flirty’ and full of ‘sexual innuendo’, said Mr Harris.
On May 20, 2020, WhatsApp messages showed Humphreys returned to her address and they shared a kiss. Then in June 2020, nearly a year after the 999 call, their relationship became physical and the visits to her address became more frequent, the messages suggest.
At the same time, Humphreys shared a private witness statement and a copy of a statement of defence from court proceedings, apparently to help the woman with her own application to the police, it is alleged. She would later explain how she learn about the CRIS police computer system, and what to expect from mentally ill people after reviewing body-worn videos.
When the woman went to Poland to visit her family, the relationship cooled and Humphreys made it clear he would not leave his partner. But the woman then gave him an ultimatum, telling Humphreys he should tell his partner or she would. By this point, Humphreys’ partner already suspected he was having an affair and both relationships broke down.
After his relationship emerged, Humphreys was arrested. In his police interview he ‘accepted the bare facts’, but told investigators ‘No one else would really understand the relationship’ and ‘he did not think he was doing anything wrong’. He also blamed relationship difficulties, low self-esteem, and mental health, jurors were told.
With most of the facts accepted by Humphreys, Mr Harris told jurors: “What is likely to be an issue for you is that this misconduct is so serious that it crosses the threshold from police disciplinary matter to criminal offence.”
‘Enjoy the sweets, Bad Cop’
Jurors were also shown a pre-recorded interview, taken by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC), featuring the young woman sitting on a sofa as she gave an account of her time with Humphreys.
Recalling the night of the 999 call, she said she bonded with Humphreys after he noticed the instruments around her house. Just three minutes after he left, she got a call from an unknown number, which she told the investigator was Humphreys on his personal phone claiming he had forgotten to take her boyfriend’s gold ring from the table as evidence.
The woman later shared concerns with Humphreys that her partner had taken an intimate video of her and she was worried he would use it against her, but Humphreys joked ‘it’s probably on PornHub already’, she told the investigator. “He was laughing about it, but it was not funny,” she added.
Another time, Humphreys sent her a photo of him with a female colleague and said he had ‘done this once before’, explaining the colleague had been the victim of an assault before he helped her become a police officer, the woman claimed. Humphreys would also ask her if she thought he was handsome and if they would go out together in different circumstances, she claimed.
When Humphreys introduced her to his colleagues, one time meeting them at the World’s End pub in Camden, she ‘got on really well with them’ and began bringing them drinks like juice and milkshakes when Humphreys pulled up in the police car near her house, she told the IOPC. Humphreys would also come to her house for cups of tea while he worked on his tablet, she claimed.
But she started to worry about neighbours seeing a police car outside her home too often, and had concerns about Humphreys ‘turning up uninvited’ due to alleged stalking in her previous relationship, she said. On one occasion, Humphreys left her a bag of sweets outside her house in the middle of the night, with a note signed ‘Good morning, Enjoy the sweets, Bad Cop’, she claimed.
The Covid lockdowns were a ‘lonely time’ for her, and this is when the friendship began to develop ‘feelings’, she recalled. On one occasion, Humphreys drove her to the top of Primrose Hill to ‘enjoy the view’ while he was dealing with an evidence bag full of wine from a shoplifting call in Swiss Cottage, the court heard. “I think [the public] thought I was an undercover police officer,” she said.
Remarking on Humphreys’ attitude, she said: “In all those years I have known him, he never said it was a wrongdoing or he could get in trouble for that. He was kind of doing that stuff like he was doing it for a long time, like it was okay. No one was really checking on what he was doing. If anyone checked, he just said he was having food. When he was on his own he was usually at mine and seeing me and nobody was checking on that. All his colleagues as well. I did not know anything was wrong as no one said anything.”
‘Do you actually go to your job?’
When the sexual element of the relationship began, the woman said: “Almost every time we saw each other we had sex. It was very funny. Was in different places… We were having lots of oral sex. If no intercourse, we would have some sort of sexual contact. I was laughing: ‘Do you actually go to your job because you are coming every day now?’
But, the woman claimed, Humphreys started to get jealous and things got ‘really weird’ once they began having sex. After meeting her ex-boyfriend, he appeared insecure and would tell her ‘I’m not a man’, she said. “It started being more intense and that’s when the dark side and second person started coming out. All the ugly stuff started,” she claimed.
The woman alleged Humphreys would check on her ‘constantly’, making her feel uncomfortable by turning up uninvited and calling her while she was at work. On one occasion she claimed he sent a photo of himself ‘looking for her’ at her workplace. “He done this three times. He kind of justified like this is okay, he did not know, brushing it under the carpet,” she added.
Humphreys, represented by Robert Morris, denies the charges. The trial under Judge Christopher Hehir continues.
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