Corpun file 24655 at www.corpun.com

Daily Mail, London, 8 September 1981, p.11

Inspector 'hit a police girl on her bare bottom'

By Ted Oliver

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AN INSPECTOR at the Metropolitan Police school indecently assaulted a trainee WPC, a court was told yesterday.

She claimed that he told her to bend over, lifted her skirt, pulled down her underwear and twice slapped her hard on her bare buttocks.

Inspector David Henley denied assaulting 19-year-old Susan Ann Jarvis.

Mr David Evans, prosecuting, told Acton Crown Court, West London: 'This allegation of an assault is not one of the most serious kind but it is a very serious matter indeed for the defendant.'

Tights

Miss Jarvis, of Cecil Road, Acton, was nearing the end of her 15-week training at the police school in Hendon on September 22 last year when the alleged offence occurred.

She had been ordered to do a week of late duty because she had sworn at one of the instructing sergeants. She alleged that when she reported for duty, she saw the inspector and a sergeant drinking whisky in an office. She was offered and accepted a drink of whisky and water.

After the sergeant left, Henley ordered her into a darkened locker room just off the inspector's office, claimed Miss Jarvis.

She said: 'He said "How much do you want this job?" I said: "A lot."

'He said: "You have got two choices. Either you bend over or you resign."

'I bent over and touched my toes facing towards him. He told me to turn around and bend over. He was behind me. He lifted my skirt up.

'I stood up and he said: "As I have told you, you have two choices." I bent over again. He lifted my skirt up and it was resting on my back.

'Then he pulled my tights and pants down leaving my backside bare. He then touched my backside and slapped me, first on the left and then on the right cheek. Both slaps were very hard,' Miss Jarvis told the court.

'I then stood up and turned to face him. He reached out with both his hands towards my breasts. I pushed his hands away and put my own up and said "forget it".

'He then just walked out of the room and I readjusted my clothing. I went into the office and said to the inspector "Can I go now?" and he said "Good night, miss".'

Miss Jarvis, now a probationary officer stationed at Southall, said she was crying when she told her boyfriend, who was waiting for her, about the alleged incident. She claimed that a fellow female trainee had seen the marks of the slaps.

Scared

In cross-examination, she said she had no idea what the inspector was thinking of when he ordered her into the darkened room, or what was going to happen when he told her to bend over.

She said: 'In the training school, the inspectors are God. I was scared. I didn't know what he was going to do.'

She agreed that she could have protested as her underclothes were being pulled down but said that she didn't know why she didn't.

After the alleged incident, she went home for the weekend but told neither her mother nor her father, who is a police officer, about what had happened.

Inspector Henley, 38, from West Wickham, Kent, told the court: 'I knew my career would be ended if I was found guilty but I didn't touch her. I didn't lay a finger on her.'

He said WPC Jarvis had come into the room where he was having an off-duty drink with a sergeant.

He found some answers to a test she had written and told her that he did not think they would be good enough for her to pass her final exam the following week.

He couldn't remember if she had been offered a drink but said that she did not drink any whisky. One of the questions he discussed with her was a complicated one involving an indecent assault.

He denied telling her that he was duty officer and said he told her at least four times that she should go home. Inspector Henley said he had gone into the locker room to change before going home and had just taken his tie off when there was a knock at the door.

He thought it was one of the sergeants and said: 'Come in.' It was WPC Jarvis. 'I was surprised to see her because I thought she had gone,' said Inspector Henley, who is married.

She asked if she could leave. The Inspector said: 'It was about the fourth time that I had told her to go so I was probably a bit irritable.'

The case continues.

Corpun file 19425 at www.corpun.com

The Times, London, 9 September 1981

Inspector cleared of spanking WPC

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Inspector David Henley was cleared yesterday of indecently assaulting a trainee policewoman by spanking her bare buttocks.

The jury of four women and eight men at Acton Crown Court took three hours to reach a verdict after Mr Henley, aged 38, had denied assaulting WPC Susan Ann Jarvis, aged 19. Mr Henley, who had paid for his own trial, was awarded costs.

Miss Jarvis, of Cecil Road, Action, now a probationer, had claimed earlier that near the end of her 15-week training course at Hendon police school she was spanked in a locker room after being told "bend over or resign".

Mr Henley, married of West Wickham, Kent, who has been in the police force for 20 years, told the court: "I didn't touch her. I didn't lay a finger on her."

He denied that Miss Jarvis had had a drink in his presence and said that they had discussed a class paper of hers which he had criticized.

He also denied being alone in the staff room with her and said that she had followed him into his locker room after he had told her three times to go home.

Mr. James Rand, QC, for the defence, told the jury: "People do have bizarre fantasies. It is the experience of courts that people behave [sic] and say things that are not true for unclear reasons."

Mr Henley said in court today [sic]: "I just couldn't understand allegations she has made. She deliberately lied about what had taken place in that office. None of it occurred."

The inspector said he had never met Miss Jarvis before that evening and could not think why she should make up stories about him.

He said that he had no explanation for any marks that were on her buttocks: "They were certainly not made by me." He told the court Miss Jarvis was looking for the duty officer and he asked if he could help.

Mr Henley who was suspended from duty because of the court case, will remain so until a decision is made by the Police Complaints Investigation Bureau, Scotland Yard said yesterday. Miss Jarvis will continue working.

--- Miss Jarvis last night refused to comment on the verdict (the Press Association reports). At the family's home in Acton, her mother said: "Susan is not here but she has been told the verdict and is, of course, terribly upset by it.

"The police told her not to say anything and she is following their advice.