Sex assault trial ex-police constable ‘back-handed’ victim as a joke, court told

An on-duty police constable sexually assaulted a woman by “back-handing” her in her private parts and later claimed his actions were intended as a joke, a court has heard.

Daniel Gentles, who jurors were told is no longer a police officer, is alleged to have assaulted the woman “out of the blue” in 2023, and to then have used his mobile phone to show her a cartoon meme of a man hitting a woman in similar circumstances.

Gentles, then aged 19 and now aged 22, denies sexually assaulting the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, over her clothing during a shift in Warwickshire, prosecutor Matthew Barnes told Warwick Crown Court.

Opening the Crown’s case on Thursday, Mr Barnes told a jury of six men and six women: “She alleges and he accepts that as she walked past him… when she was standing in front of and quite close to him, out of the blue he ‘back-handed’ her quite deliberately.

“This touching of a sensitive part of the female body caused her only momentary pain, but also distress.”

Mr Barnes said that around a week after the alleged assault, Gentles had contacted the victim on a social media platform to apologise for his actions and wrote words similar to “I thought it was a joke and you would do it back”.

When he was interviewed under caution by police in November 2023, the court heard, Gentles admitted being “immature” by swinging his right hand towards the woman, hitting her private parts, and showing her a meme on his phone.

Mr Barnes said: “He said he had misjudged the situation. It was just a joke, that he understood on reflection that it was not appropriate and he apologised for his actions.”

Explaining the Crown’s case, the prosecutor told the jury: “The prosecution would suggest to you that the touching was plainly sexual by its very nature.

“Finally, the prosecution suggests that he did not reasonably believe that she was consenting to such touching.”

After explaining that the jury would be asked to consider the evidence in light of legal directions to be given by the judge later in the trial, Mr Barnes said: “It is not necessary to prove that the defendant intended the touching to be sexual.”

The complainant in the case gave evidence from behind a screen following Mr Barnes’ opening speech.

Telling the court she was left in a state of panic after the alleged assault, the woman said: “I said ‘why did you do that?’ He repeated the phrase that he used when he did it and I said I had never heard of it.

“He got up some kind of meme on his phone. It was basically a man’s… it looked like a moving hand as the hand was blurred, going towards a woman’s vagina.”

The complainant, who became upset at several points in her evidence, told the jury that she had received a message from Gentles saying he was sorry, to which she had replied: “It is whatever.”

Under cross-examination from defence barrister Sharon Bahia, the woman was asked if the incident “took on a life of its own” after a third party reported the alleged assault to police, and she had then exaggerated her account.

The complainant replied: “Absolutely not.”

She added: “I was scrambling for somebody to tell me it was wrong. I was laughing it off because I didn’t know what else to do.”

The trial continues on Monday.