The standards of behaviour in Britain’s police forces seem to be taking on the appearance of those in the Third World, as a senior police officer, who admitted having a sex romp in a railway station police office with a stranger while on duty, was cleared of any offence yesterday after the jury heard that he kept his radio earpiece switched on throughout.

British Transport Police Inspector Masood Khan, 41, was charged with misconduct in a public office after a 20-minute tryst in a police office with a woman he had met on an internet dating site.

The officer, who signed up for the website using the name Michael K Plod, told jurors: "It was an absolutely wrong thing to do, morally and professionally, and I shouldn't have done that."

But he claimed that he was always poised and ready to respond to an emergency because he had his earpiece in.

"If there was a call for me I would have answered it and dealt with it,' he said. It took the jury at Southwark Crown Court only ten minutes to clear him but Khan still faces a disciplinary hearing. The ultimate penalty is the sack.

A BTP spokesman said: "He has been found not guilty but he will now face disciplinary procedures. Whether or not they will proceed with them or not, I don't know."

Khan met the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on an internet site which specialises in uniforms. Having paid a £14.50 membership fee, he arranged to meet her at Gatwick Airport rail station the next day, when he would have been on duty.

Khan claimed he thought that at the time of the arranged tryst, at 3pm on July 23 last year, another inspector would have been on duty to relieve him from his job in charge of 20 officers covering the rail network in the South East.

Used police car

During the two-day trial the court heard how he drove in full uniform to the rendezvous from his office in Victoria, central London, in a marked police car after telling a junior officer he needed the room for police business.

He arrived at the station in full uniform. CCTV footage showed the couple going into a sparsely-furnished "grubby" and "unspectacular" office at the end of Platform Two and emerging 20 minutes later.

Khan, a police officer for 15 years, accepted the woman performed a sex act on him and they had full intercourse. He admitted he had discovered at midday that day that there would be no inspector to cover for him, but went ahead with the meeting anyway.

He told the court: "If there was a call for me I would have answered it and dealt with it."

After the tryst Khan returned to work. He was arrested two days later. Khan, of Coulsdon, Surrey, denied being reckless in leaving the office at a time when the force was understaffed, saying there was always a shortage of officers.

Kevin Baumber, defending Khan, said his conduct amounted to "misbehaviour but not criminal behaviour".

He added: "This is a criminal court, not a moral court. It's doubtful this case would have been brought if he'd taken an extended lunch break or gone for a game of golf."

At a time when the country faces a heightened state of security, due to an imported terrorist threat from Islamic extremists, few taxpayers will be reassured that our police forces are staffed by those with public safety and security as their prime concern. We really deserve and demand better from those paid to protect us.

If this was a member of the public they would have been arrested & charged for breaching the peace & would face a jail sentence, shows how incapable this police service in the country really is.

And no wonder the police are so late at attending crime scenes, their too busy having sex with random people.

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