Met police instructor found guilty of groping a trainee after force party

A Metropolitan Police instructor has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a trainee in a lift.

Pc Simon McKenzie groped the woman, 23, who cannot be named, after a party at the force`s training college in Hendon, north-west London, last year.

McKenzie, 41, who denied the charges, was suspended from the Met and awaits internal misconduct proceedings.

The married father-of-two from Leighton Buzzard, Beds, will be sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on 3 April.

During the four-day trial the court heard the attack happened days before the Met`s latest batch of recruits completed their 16-week course.

The victim had returned to the college in Hendon after a black-tie event in central London and, after a round of college parties, ended up in a friend`s room with several other trainees and a “very drunk” McKenzie.

She told jurors how when she rejected his initial advances he seemed embarrassed but then insisted on walking her to her room.

“As we were walking along the corridor he was getting closer and closer and then he tried to kiss me again,” the constable told the court.

When they got into the lift he pinned her against the side and tried to French kiss her, the court heard.

“I started screaming quite loudly, hoping someone would hear me,” she said.

“At this point I was quite scared as the lift was going down to the basement and there would be no-one down there.”

The attack stopped when the lift doors opened for two of her friends, who ordered McKenzie to leave.

Judge Ronald Moss told McKenzie: “She was obviously frightened and there was a difference of rank between you.

“She was stuck in the lift and couldn`t get out. I imagine she was very frightened.”