report by panel chair<\/a> and former assistant chief constable Craig Holden said that despite the colleague, Ms A, telling the officer she had a boyfriend, and a male officer \u2018shielding\u2019 her from him on the dance floor, he persisted.<\/p>\nBut while it said this was \u2018concerning\u2019, PC Chesterton\u2019s conduct was at the \u2018lower end of the sexual harassment spectrum\u2019 and would not \u2018unduly concern the public\u2019.<\/p>\n
A finding of gross misconduct often carries a penalty of being placed on a list barring a former officer from policing or law enforcement and a finding that they would have been dismissed without notice had they still been serving, but there is no such option for a finding of misconduct.<\/p>\n
The report from the police misconduct hearing on Monday, March 30, at force headquarters in Portishead, said the incident happened during a work social event in 2023 that began with an evening meal before PC Chesterton and Ms A \u2013 who had both been drinking heavily \u2013 went on to a nightclub with the other male colleague.<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cAt various points the officer tried to dance closely with Ms A.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis included putting his hand on her waist and lower back.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told him she was in a relationship, but the officer persisted in trying to dance closely with Ms A.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs A felt uncomfortable by the officer\u2019s unwanted advances but did not want to cause a scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe asked [the other male colleague] to subtly intervene to shield her from the continued advances.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report said that when they were leaving the venue, PC Chesterton placed his hands on her waist and upper arm, which was also \u2018unwanted\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs A disclosed what had happened to her partner and subsequently to work colleagues, but did not make a formal complaint herself in the first instance,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
During a police interview in June 2024, the officer said he was encouraged to go to the second venue by Ms A and misread her signals, thinking she may be interested in him.<\/p>\n
PC Chesterton said he did not intend to touch her on the dance floor or at the end of the night but that he may have bumped into her by accident.<\/p>\n
The panel decided that he \u2018failed to act with self-control\u2019 or treat the woman with courtesy and respect.<\/p>\n
But its report said: \u201cIt is clear from the overall evidence that the officer felt encouraged to move on to the nightclub and he believed that Ms A was keen for him to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is understandable that he could have misread that encouragement to go to the nightclub to be a romantic interest in him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis initial actions on the dancefloor to test what he perceived to be an interest in him were reasonable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was his persistence after he had been dissuaded by both Ms A and subsequently by [the male colleague], initially by his subtle physical actions before telling him directly, that are concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe panel are in no way condoning what happened, but the conduct was considered to be at the lower end of the sexual harassment spectrum and in circumstances that the panel considered would not unduly concern the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
PC Chesterton did not attend the hearing and was not legally represented.<\/p>\n
He resigned while under investigation and left the constabulary in September 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Avon & Somerset Police panel found he committed misconduct (Image: BPM MEDIA) A Bristol police officer who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[9312,381,748,393,4884,285,11945,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-891071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-avon-and-somerset-constabulary","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-portishead","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116397183314051273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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