A police sergeant caught naked in a park could now face up to five years in jail if he takes his underwear off in public again.
Simon Ince claimed he had been jogging and was merely wringing sweat from his clothes after horrified dog walkers spotted him in the nude near a children’s play area in Chatham.
Body-worn footage shows the moment Simon Ince is arrested after reports of a naked man near Vale Drive in Chatham. Picture: Kent Police
He told police, “I have not waved my willy”, insisting his actions were not sexually motivated.
But a court heard officers later uncovered photos on his phone showing him masturbating while naked in the same woodland area off Vale Drive about five months before.
This week, a judge ruled “reckless” Ince had acted for sexual gratification and “enjoyed the thrill of doing it outdoors”, describing his evidence as “evasive and untruthful”.
The 52-year-old dad has now been made subject to a sexual risk order (SRO), applied for by Kent Police.
It means their disgraced former officer is banned from taking his underwear off or urinating in public – unless using a public toilet – and is prohibited from going to the Horsted Valley nature reserve, which encompasses the park he stripped off in.
Former Kent Police sergeant Simon Ince was seen running into Medway Magistrates’ Court. Picture: Jim Bennett
Ince could be jailed if the order is breached and police chiefs say he will be “closely monitored”.
‘I think there is a naked person’
On Tuesday, Ince, who had successfully evaded the press outside previous hearings, was pictured wearing a suit and face mask as he ran towards Medway Magistrates’ Court, where the SRO was to be decided on.
Judge Roy Brown heard that the ex-police sergeant, who now works for a contractor at a utility company, was first spotted with no clothes on in woodland off Vale Drive by shocked members of the public on February 1, 2024.
In evidence from an eyewitness read in court, they said: “As we walked through the cut-through bushes, I jumped, stopped straight away and said ‘I think there is a naked person’.”
Police sergeant Simon Ince was spotted naked near the children’s play park in Vale Drive, Chatham
The same dog walkers spotted a “skin-coloured thing hiding in the woods” in almost the same position the following day.
“I saw what I believed to be the same male from yesterday,” they said in a statement.
Pictures taken by a member of the public showed Ince without any clothes on in an area close to a children’s play park on February 2, 2024.
After being spotted, he quickly dressed into “keep-fit clothing” and started jogging around the park as police were called to the scene.
Police officers chase their colleague through park
Body-worn footage played in court showed the moment officers arrived, running into the bushy area before shouting, “Stay where you are,” and apprehending the fleeing Ince, who was dressed in a blue t-shirt and shorts.
Asked in court why he ran away, Ince said: “As I explained to them, I said I didn’t know he was a police officer and that is why I was running.
“I understand seeing me running makes me appear guilty but I wasn’t doing anything.
“When they arrested me I wasn’t naked – I was clothed.”
In the clip, when told he is under arrest on suspicion of exposure and outraging public decency, Ince responds, “I know, I’m a police officer,” before telling them he is based at Maidstone but does not have his warrant card on him.
He later adds: “I have literally come out of sight to go for a wee.
“As you can see, I have been running. I am sweating.”
Ince is seen being led away and put into the back of a police car.
One of the officers phones a colleague and says he needs to speak about “a slightly sensitive matter”.
Ince’s excuses: ‘I thought I wouldn’t be seen’
When Ince was apprehended at the scene, he repeatedly told officers he had been urinating in the area.
But in court this week, he said he would strip off after a run to cool down, doing “stretches, squats, lunges” in an area “out of sight of everyone”.
Police Sergeant Simon Ince being led away from the scene in Vale Drive, Chatham, by officers in February 2024
“I take my clothing off and wring it out because of the amount of sweat, flap it about and then put it back on because it’s cold,” he said.
Asked why he did not tell officers he was cooling down at the scene, he told the court on Tuesday: “It was not something I wanted to admit to the officers then and there.”
Judge Brown asked: “Why did you not want to admit it if it was something that was innocent?”
Ince responded: “It might not be seen as innocent.”
Police also uncovered pictures of Ince in the nude on his phone in the same location on August 19 and September 5, both in 2023. He also filmed himself masturbating on the September date.
“They were intended for my partner,” Ince told the court.
But in evidence read in court, Kent Police’s representative Isabella Crowdy says Ince’s wife did not remember the conversation.
Mobile phone evidence revealed that PS Simon Ince had also stripped naked and masturbated in a wooded area near the play park in Vale Drive, Chatham, in September 2023
Ince attempted to defend his actions by citing poor mental health, a fear that he had Alzheimer’s and grief over his late mother’s birthday.
He told the court he had been suffering “a breakdown” and was self-medicating with alcohol to deal with the stress of being an officer – but has since gone sober.
As well as his heavy drinking, he also took up running as a coping mechanism and would “run himself to the point he was physically sick”.
He ran between six and 10 miles in the Horsted Valley area almost every day, but has since quit because, he says, “that has an almost PTSD impact”.
Ince argued he had stripped naked behind trees, a fence and brambles in that part of the park, and had wanted to avoid being seen. He denied his actions were sexually motivated.
“I have not been trying to be voyeuristic,” he said.
“I think I used the expression, ‘I have not waved my willy’, to the custody sergeant.”
But given he was only a 10- to 15-minute walk away from his house, Ince was asked why he did not return home before getting his kit off.
“I thought it was that overgrown, and with the fence and trees, I thought I wouldn’t be seen,” he added.
The judge’s verdict: ‘I did not believe his evidence’
Judge Brown says he was in “no doubt whatsoever” that Ince had committed acts of a sexual nature on at least four occasions – in August 2023, in September 2023 and twice in February 2024.
Former police sergeant Simon Ince appeared at Medway Magistrates’ Court. Picture: Jim Bennett
“For reasons still unclear, Mr Ince decided to take all his clothes off in a public park, albeit a relatively secluded part and masturbate for his sexual gratification,” the judge said.
“I am clear of that determination because the explanation put forward on three of four of those occasions did not stand up to any cross-examination or examination.
“I do not accept for a moment that he took his clothes off because he was too warm, to let his clothes dry and put them back on.
“He did it for sexual gratification.”
Judge Brown added Ince did so because he “enjoyed the thrill of doing it outdoors” but probably “hoped not to be seen or caught”.
However, he said the former officer “really didn’t care and was reckless”.
“His evidence was evasive and untruthful when it came to his motive for stripping and masturbating,” Judge Brown said.
He was “not persuaded these are the only times he stripped naked in this location”.
In a damning summary, the judge said: “I did not believe Mr Ince’s evidence.”
Although Ince had taken steps to address his mental health, Judge Brown says there was “nothing which addressed his sexual behaviour”.
And he believes the reason for this is because “he continues to be in denial”.
Police Sergeant Simon Ince was caught naked twice in a wooded area off Vale Drive in Chatham
“He has not faced up to that behaviour,” Judge Brown said.
“There has been no explanation as to why he behaved in the way he did.
“There has certainly been no explanation if he is likely to behave in the same way in the future if he goes back on the drink, [or if he has] problems at home.”
He added: “There is no evidence at all he has taken steps to address his sexual misbehaviour, as he does not accept he has sexually misbehaved in the past. I am satisfied he has.”
Police will ‘closely monitor’ disgraced former sergeant
An SRO now applies to Ince for five years, and he will be subject to notification requirements and monitoring.
Police Sergeant Simon Ince stripped naked and masturbated in a wooded area near a play park in Vale Drive, Chatham, on September 5, 2023
There was also an application for costs totalling £2,516, which Ince, of Yarrow Road, Chatham, has been ordered to pay.
Although SROs are a civil order which can be imposed without a conviction, breaching one is a criminal offence.
Det Supt Mat Scott, of Kent Police’s Professional Standards department, welcomed the “significant five-year order”, confirming Ince will be closely monitored.
He told KentOnline: “The people of Kent quite rightly expect the very best from their police officers.
“Ince betrayed that trust, and I am satisfied the order now in place will help deter further offending and protect the public.”
How did we get here?
KentOnline first revealed in September 2024 that Kent Police had sacked Ince at a fast-track misconduct hearing over his actions in the park.
Former Kent Police sergeant Simon Ince wore a face mask and suit as he ran towards court on Tuesday. Picture: Jim Bennett
We then revealed in February last year that he had been spared a criminal conviction following his initial arrest.
Despite police uncovering photos of him committing lewd acts in the same woods months prior, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) ruled there was insufficient evidence to pursue charges such as indecent exposure or outraging public decency.
Kent Police challenged the decision, but the CPS dismissed their appeal. Instead, Ince admitted to a lesser public order offence at Brighton Magistrates’ Court and was given a conditional caution, which required him to attend a “thinking skills” course.
Following the conclusion of the criminal case against Ince, Kent Police applied for the SRO, which the judge granted at Medway Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.