An experienced police officer who kissed a junior colleague before placing his hand on her knee and then later Facetiming her, telling her he had an erection, has been dismissed from the force.

A misconduct hearing held by Lancashire Police was told that on December 10 2021, during a search in a rural part of the county, PC Graham Salt kissed a female PC on the lips after making complimentary but crude remarks to her regarding how attractive she was.

A report from the misconduct hearing stated: “When he stopped the vehicle stating that he saw something in the field he said to her, ‘what would you do if I kissed you now, would your head fall off?’.

“He then unbuckled his seatbelt, turned to the side and leaned in towards the PC before pulling her towards him, placing his lips on hers and kissing her.

“Later he stopped the vehicle near Pimbo Industrial Estate and put his right hand on her left knee.”

The PC was at the time a 22-year-old student officer who had only joined the force in May 2021.

She told the misconduct panel that she did not consent to the officer kissing her, but did not want her reporting the incident to result in his prosecution.

The panel was told that following the incident, the officer, who was 39 at the time and had been in the force for 13 years, called the PC via Facetime to make sure she was alright.

It was during this call that he told her he “had an erection and asked her what she was going to do about it”. This prompted the PC to stop the call.

The panel was of the overall view that the officer misunderstood the situation between him and the young PC and had, “wrongly construed that the PC was interested in him and misinterpreted her responses as encouraging him”.

The report from the misconduct hearing went on: “The panel has already concluded that the officer’s actions constituted gross misconduct.

“There was malign intent to the extent that his actions were for his own sexual gratification, but it arose from him misjudging a situation and misinterpreting comments made by the PC rather than setting out to be predatory.

“There was an abuse of the officer’s position. There was an imbalance of power between him and the PC. He was the senior constable effectively tutoring the PC on this occasion.

"She was a new, young officer.

“He should have been assisting her development as an officer rather than considering her and pursuing her as a sexual partner."

It continued: “There is a significant scale of national concern about the actions of officers and their attitude to women.

“There is also national concern about the general treatment of women in the workplace.

“There was a continuation of the officer’s behaviour as he carried out the second incident after having conducted the first.

“He should have recognised that the first incident was unwanted by the PC.

“The conduct was carried out while the officer was on duty and while he should have been fulfilling his duties and responsibilities as a police officer.

“The officer did make some admissions about his conduct but did not accept all the allegations.

“He has now expressed to the panel his genuine remorse for his actions and deeply regrets that the incident happened and that he has let down his colleague and the force.

“Any officer who joins the police should not be subjected to any inappropriate conduct from any other officers, particularly female officers should not be subject to any unwanted attention from male officers.”

PC Salt was dismissed from the force without notice. His name will be sent to the College of Policing for inclusion on the police barred list.