A former senior detective who headed up a Thames Valley Police scheme to stop sexual harassment is being investigated over how he handled reports of a sexual assault claim against another police officer.

Former Detective Chief Inspector James Senior, who was based in Oxford, was responsible for the force-wide Project Vigilant scheme which looked to stop predatory and inappropriate sexual behaviour.

However, he now faces a misconduct hearing later this month after claims he failed to act out his “duties and responsibilities” when a woman accused a police officer of sexually assaulting her.

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On July 30, 2021, Mr Senior attended a party in the Thames Valley area with a former Metropolitan Police sergeant Anish Sharma.

It is alleged that Mr Sharma sexually assaulted a woman by putting his hand on her thigh without consent and that he exposed himself to her in the garden.

The allegations state the woman disclosed this to Mr Senior during the party to which he allegedly said “have a think about what you want to do as we all have careers” and “go home and sleep on it”.

He is also accused of making Mr Sharma aware of the allegation that night giving him time to potentially destroy evidence after he left the party.

Furthermore, it is said that he sent WhatsApp messages to Mr Sharma on the night of July 30 and the morning of 31 July, 2021 which were subsequently deleted before Mr Sharma was interviewed on August 1, 2021.

He is also being accused of lying in his witness statement by saying he did not recall the woman mentioning that PS Sharma had touched her as well as failing to highlight the WhatsApp messages from Mr Sharma.

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Lastly, it is claimed that on May 22, 2021, WhatsApp messages were exchanged with Mr Sharma which were described as “grossly offensive, derogatory, discriminatory and misogynistic”.

The Metropolitan Police said such incidents, if proven, amount to gross misconduct which is so serious that if he was still a serving officer his dismissal would have been justified.

Mr Senior was in charge of Project Vigilant which was first launched in Oxford in 2019 partly in response to ‘Cowley Prowler’ Nelson Soares’ sex attacks on women in the city and has since been expanded nationwide.

The scheme saw plain clothes officers tour nightspots for potential sexual predators and identify troubling behaviour like loitering, sexual harassment or inappropriate touching.

The misconduct hearing will be chaired by Mr James Keeley the legally qualified chair at Thames Valley Police headquarters in Oxford later this month between July 12 and 21.