Paul Hinchcliffe: South Yorkshire Police officer who sexually assaulted teenager at Wetherspoons pub is jailed

Paul Hinchcliffe was a serving police officer with South Yorkshire Police when he sexually assaulted the 18-year-old at the pub in Wath upon Dearne, Rotherham, on October 3, 2020. The 46-year-old married father-of-four, who resigned from the force following his conviction, was in a group including other officers who were drinking at the pub when he launched the assault that afternoon.

Hinchcliffe appeared at Leeds Crown Court today, Friday, March 31, and was sentenced to eight months in prison, with Judge Robin Mairs telling him his behaviour ‘betrays your fellow officers who do a decent, committed job and makes women mistrustful of the police force’.

The court heard how the woman he assaulted said in her impact statement: “All my trust for the police just went. I used to feel safe when I saw police officers. I never think that now.”

Hinchcliffe was found guilty of sexual assault earlier this year by a jury. Judge Mairs recounted the drunken events in the bar, reminding the defendant how he took a photograph of the woman wearing her glasses and showed everyone else, saying: “I’m going to have a wank to that tonight.”

He then started flicking beer foam at her chest in what the judge decided was him simulating semen.

The judge said Hinchcliffe pulled open the woman’s top and photographed her breasts inside her bra while making orgasm noises before sending the image to a colleague.

The woman, who lived with her parents, was at home later when she got WhatsApp messages from Hinchcliffe with a picture of her accompanied by what the judge called ‘masturbating emojis’. One message said: “God I’d do you, is that bad?”