Former Keighley PC Declan Middleton jailed for having sex with victim

A former police officer who had sex with a vulnerable domestic violence victim whose complaints he was assigned to investigate has been jailed.

Declan Middleton had recently joined West Yorkshire Police after completing his training when he first came into contact with the woman during the first Covid lockdown.

Two months later, he sent explicit WhatsApp messages to another woman, who contacted the police because malicious messages had been sent to her by an unknown person.

The judge told 33-year-old Middleton, who was found guilty of two counts of abuse of public office after a hearing last month, that he had committed a “grotesque and gross breach of trust”.

Leeds Crown Court was told Middleton, of Lark Field Terrace in Keighley, was sent to the first woman’s home in May 2020 to take a statement from her regarding an alleged assault against her.

It was stated that the woman had bruises on her face at that time and that she had recently taken her children into care.

During the meeting, the court was told Middleton asked to be shown to the toilet, at which point he grabbed her bottom from behind as she walked up the stairs.

He later left her his personal phone number and flirtatious and explicit messages were exchanged between them over the following days.

The prosecution said he returned to the property about a week after first meeting her and had consensual sex with her.

Middleton denied having sex with woman his trial It was said that he lied.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said she felt she was being treated like a “free prostitute”.

The second woman was first visited by Middleton in July 2020 and was instructed to investigate claims she had been sent “disturbing” anonymous messages online.

The woman, who had previously been subjected to domestic abuse, was left with Middleton’s number and the pair exchanged more than 200 WhatsApp messages, many of them flirtatious, within two weeks.

The court heard that communication between the pair ceased after it became clear that Middleton did not want a long-term relationship with the victim.

In her victim impact statement, the second woman said the change had “damaged her trust in the police”.

Middleton resigned from office after the allegations against him were taken to court.

He was already banned from serving as a police officer before the criminal case against him was concluded.

Nicholas Worsley said Middleton’s family would struggle financially while he was behind bars and the risk of him reoffending was seen as “low”.

Jailing him for two years, Judge Simon Batiste said: “You saw these women as an opportunity to engage in what you viewed as easy sex.

“With that kind of attitude you are totally unfit to be a police officer.

“These types of crimes undermine trust in the police as a whole.”

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