Aaron Grimshaw, aged 23, has been sentenced to a total of five and a half years’ imprisonment after posing as a plainclothes police officer to carry out fake searches and sexually assault two 16-year-old girls, alongside further child sexual offences committed in West Yorkshire.
The incident occurred on Friday, 22 May, when two 16-year-old girls were attending an outdoor gathering at Tutshill Recreation Ground in Gloucestershire.
The court heard that Grimshaw approached the pair in a secluded, wooded section of the park, announcing himself as a police officer and instructing them that they were required to undergo a search.
To deceive the victims, Grimshaw displayed a wallet containing a metal badge or emblem.
He coerced compliance by threatening the teenagers that refusing the search would result in them being detained, escorted to a police station, or having their parents contacted.
Under the pretence of conducting a formal search, Grimshaw subjected both girls to sexual assaults by touching them underneath their clothing.
Under UK law, all victims of sexual offences are protected by lifelong statutory anonymity.
The assault was interrupted when one of the victims shouted: “No, stop. I am not OK with this.”
Hearing her distress, friends gathered around Grimshaw and began filming the confrontation on their smartphones.
During the exchange, Grimshaw claimed that “she consented” and insisted he would call for uniformed backup before walking away from the scene.
Gloucestershire Constabulary were alerted later that day and tracked Grimshaw down using the video footage and clothing descriptions recorded by the teenagers.
He was arrested and initially appeared at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court, where he entered guilty pleas to two counts of sexual assault on a female.
At the sentencing hearing, the court imposed a 12-month custodial term for the Gloucestershire offences.
However, Grimshaw also fell to be sentenced for a series of separate sexual offences investigated by West Yorkshire Police, which he had previously admitted:
- Sexual assault on a female
- Sexual activity with a child
- Sexual communication with a child
- Making indecent photographs of a child
The presiding judge ordered that the four-and-a-half-year sentence for the West Yorkshire offences run consecutively to the 12-month term for the Gloucestershire assaults, resulting in an aggregate custodial sentence of five years and six months (66 months).
In addition to the custodial sentence, Grimshaw was made subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and ordered to comply with the notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Register for an indefinite period (for life).
Release Calculation: Under UK sentencing legislation governing standard determinate custodial sentences of less than seven years, early release provisions apply at the 50 per cent mark. Grimshaw is required to serve two years and nine months (33 months) in prison custody before becoming eligible for automatic statutory release on licence to complete the remainder of his term under the supervision of the Probation Service.
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