(Image: POLICE)
A former police trainer who pursued sexual relationships with students and left them feeling "uncomfortable" and "manipulated" has been barred from policing.
PC Peter Miller pursued sexual relationships with female student officers, with one saying she
A misconduct hearing on September 3 found the allegations against him proven and ruled his conduct amounted to gross misconduct.
PC Miller "deliberately and repeatedly sent messages to female student officers with the intention of pursuing sexual relationships."
It also describes his conduct as " predatory behaviour motivated by a desire to establish improper sexual relationships with junior colleagues."
PC Miller did not dispute sending the messages, making the comments or making the calls.
He said he was "merely being friendly and wasn’t flirtatious" and was not pursuing sexual relationships.
But the panel found "a pattern of behaviour" towards student officers, contacting them on social media, starting conversations and "graduating towards flirtatious messaging which offered a clear message to the student officers that PC Miller would welcome a relationship."
One student, named only as PC J, reciprocated his advances and the pair had a sexual relationship.
A panel said PC Miller abused his position as a student officer trainer.
The report says: "There was undoubtedly a conflict of interest between PC Miller’s position as a student trainer and his behaviour in pursuing sexual relationships with student officers."
He used his position to offer PC J favourable treatment at work.
She said she was vulnerable as a new student, felt "manipulated, upset and used", and had been "the weak one picked by PC Miller."
He told another office, PC Im he was not allowed to talk to students, and told a third, PC G, he would be sacked if anyone knew they were chatting on a dating site.
The panel found that Miller harassed PC I by repeatedly messaging and calling to find her on a night out, despite her silence.
PC A "reported being compelled to respond to his messages to avoid awkwardness or embarrassment in class".
She said she felt "uncomfortable, freaked out and almost degraded."
The panel found that Miller breached professional standards on authority, respect and courtesy.
It said he had pursued "inappropriate sexual relationships with a number of student officers, failing to treat them with respect and abusing his position of power and responsibility over them as their student officer trainer."
It found his conduct was "intentional, deliberate, targeted towards student female officers and part of a pattern of repeated conduct."
They added: "This conduct was predatory behaviour motivated by a desire to establish improper sexual relationships with junior colleagues."
He made early admissions about the facts of the allegations.
The panel concluded that the case was highly serious and his conduct "could result in dismissal and therefore constitutes gross misconduct."
Miller had already left the force by the time of the hearing.
The panel considered taking no further action after finding gross misconduct, but rejected that option.
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The report says: "We therefore have concluded that the most appropriate outcome is a finding that the officer would have been dismissed had they still been a member of the police force and that this sanction does fulfil the purpose of the misconduct regime."
The case will be sent to the College of Policing for consideration under the Police Barred List and Advisory List Regulations 2017.
The former officer has the right to appeal against the hearing’s findings and outcome.