Pc ‘used computers to target women for sex’

Pc Jasbir Singh Dhanda, 52, of Littleover, Derby, is on trial charged with 12 counts of misconduct in a public office and obtaining personal data through misuse of a police database while he was a serving officer with Derbyshire Police, with the offences covering a period of more than two years.

The court heard that one of the three complainants was a prostitute in Derby who was addicted to cocaine and heroin.

Opening the case at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday, Neil Moore, prosecuting, told a jury of five women and seven men that Dhanda was accused of having sex with two of the three complainants while on duty.

Dhanda used the police database to look up the women’s personal records, which showed addresses and details of their “vulnerability”, Mr Moore told the court.

The constable targeted the three complainants because they were vulnerable and because he did not believe they would report him, Mr Moore said.

Even if they did, Dhanda thought their complaints would not be taken seriously due to their circumstances, Mr Moore added.

The court heard Dhanda accessed the records of one of the complainants 100 times over a two-year period.

He met one of the women after she complained to the police about an incident involving her ex.

Dhanda went round to her house the day after the incident “to update her”, he told her.

He then pulled down his trousers and performed a sex act, telling her: “Look what you’re doing to me. I like it. I fancy you.” He touched her sexually before asking for her phone number.

Dhanda then visited her house for sex two or three times a week, day or night.

Two years later, he turned up out of the blue to another address where she lived in the city, Mr Moore said. On that occasion he told her: “At last, I’ve found you.”

Mr Moore told the court Dhanda accessed 40 reports on 100 occasions between March 2008 and April 2010 on the police database system relating to this complainant.

Another complainant said she felt compelled to do as Dhanda asked because he was a police officer.

Dhanda is alleged to have told the woman, who was a prostitute, there was a warrant for her arrest but that he would not execute it if she got him some cocaine.

“Score for me and be a good girl and you’ll be all right,” he told her.

They then smoked a crack pipe together before he asked her for sex.

The woman told police she obtained drugs on 12 occasions for Dhanda. They had sex four or five of those times.

“It wasn’t nice. It was intimidating. But he didn’t hurt me,” she said.

“He took advantage of me because I was vulnerable,” the woman added.

A third complainant, with whom Dhanda had a relationship, said that he attempted to have sex with her while he was on duty and would ignore calls that came through to his radio, telling her he was on a break.

Mr Moore said Dhanda used the database to “better enable him to carry out relationships with women who were vulnerable, capable of being taken advantage of or exploited”.

There was no reason why he would have to access such records for official purposes, he added.

Dhanda, who appeared in court wearing a black suit and blue tie, is also alleged to have looked up his ex-wife and former partner, along with a third woman on the police database.

The police constable, who has been suspended from Derbyshire Police pending the outcome of criminal proceedings, faces seven counts of misconduct in a public office and five counts of obtaining personal data. He denies all the charges.

Judge Michael Stokes QC adjourned the case until today, when the court is expected to start hearing evidence from 14 witnesses.