By Victoria Brenan

Last updated at 09:42, Saturday, 13 August 2011

A policeman jailed for using the force computer to help him set up sexual liaisons had previously been warned twice by senior officers about pestering women, it has emerged.

Mark Fisher

Related: Corrupt Cumbrian cop jailed for four years

Despite the official warnings – for sending explicit texts to women and inappropriate sexual behaviour in 2003 and 2005 – the shamed DC worked in the Public Protection Unit, a role which brought him into contact with vulnerable women.

Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde last night admitted “in hindsight”, that 49-year-old Mark Fisher, who was jailed yesterday for four years after he was convicted of five misconduct charges, should not have been allowed to work in the unit.

“However, when he was given the role, the Constabulary was unaware of the scale and seriousness of Fisher’s behaviour,” he told the News & Star.

“As soon as details of his offending came to light, Fisher was suspended from duty and a thorough investigation was undertaken.”

Fisher had brought disgrace to the rank he held with Cumbria Constabulary, Judge Paul Batty QC said.

The married father-of-two, who has since lost his ‘family, career, reputation and prospects’, used the Sleuth computer system to access contact information on women he fancied.

He then rang them up and pursued them, Carlisle Crown Court heard, on one occasion calling one 26 times in a week.

He took photographs of a suspected attacker to show another woman - potentially jeopardising any future court case – and offered to pay drug debts in return for sex with a third.

As he was sentenced, it was revealed how Fisher, nicknamed Fish the Flirt, had received official warnings from Superintendents because of his behaviour towards women in 2003 and 2005 - before the offences began in 2006.

The first was for sending explicit text messages and the second for inappropriate sexual behaviour. Both related to members of the public.

Judge Batty said Fisher, from Cockermouth, was ‘judged to have brought discredit on the police service’ when he was given the warning in January 2005. “It was obvious you did not take that warning on board,” he told Fisher, a policeman for 24 years, as the first offence took place a year later. Fisher, still employed by the force, now faces a fast-tracked disciplinary hearing, Mr Hyde said.

“Honesty and integrity are two of the most important characteristics of a police officer, but Fisher failed in his duties to protect vulnerable members of the community,” he said.

“He abused his position of trust and in the process let himself down, let his colleagues down and, most importantly, let the community in Cumbria down.

“We are committed to dealing robustly with anyone in our organisation who misuses information or fails in their duty to serve and protect the community. Such behaviour will not be tolerated from police officers and staff in Cumbria.”

Carlisle Crown Court heard how Fisher’s life now lay in ruins. “He has, quite literally, through his own conduct, lost everything,” defence barrister Graias Gozem QC said.

In sentencing him, which Judge Batty described as ‘a melancholy task’, he told him he had ‘sought to exploit vulnerable women to pursue a sexual agenda with each.’

One he had previously had a relationship with many years earlier and, when she went to report domestic violence at Whitehaven police station in 2009, Fisher used the computer to find her contact details and “bombarded” her with calls, Judge Batty said. The pair then went on to meet regularly for sex, with Fisher telling her someone was covering for him at work.

Another woman, also a victim of domestic violence in 2006, had a visit from Fisher two weeks later, despite him not being involved in the case. “You turned up at her house uninvited and unwelcome,” the judge said.

“She described you as scary.”

He showed her a photograph of a suspect - a move which was “against all rules and regulations” and which could have “easily frustrated an investigation”, Judge Batty said.

Fisher offered a third woman - described as a vulnerable, recovering alcoholic and living in a hostel - alcohol in 2008, and offered cash in return to see tattoos on intimate areas of her body.

“Another witness saw the text message [in relation to that],” the judge said.

“You have previous for this sort of thing - you were warned by a Superintendent in 2003 for doing just that.”

He said accessing the force computer to get highly confidential information was a serious aggravating factor in the case.

“Investigations could have been compromised. Your reward, you hoped, was going to be sexual favours.”

First published at 08:57, Saturday, 13 August 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk