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Sergeant Rob Adams, 39, told the victim he was “aroused” by her being groped and “didn’t blame” the man for assaulting her. In a series of inappropriate comments, Adams told the woman he wanted to handcuff her to his bed.

Adams, a divorced father of two, was found guilty of “deliberate, persistent predatory behaviour” with “malign intent” by a disciplinary panel.

He was previously protected by an anonymity order imposed by the independent chair of the disciplinary panel, Harry Ireland, but can now be named and pictured following opposition from the media and Sussex Police.

Rape and sexual abuse charities also waded in to express their fury in a bid to overturn reporting restrictions.

It comes after Adams was handed a final written warning in 2020 after he stuck a photo of a female colleague’s face on to a pornographic picture and sent it as a Secret Santa gift.

And it was also revealed in 2017 Adams sent a female police community support officer (PCSO) a full-length naked selfie of himself and conducted an inappropriate relationship with her.

Adams has now been sacked and banned from ever being in a police force again after the disciplinary hearing.

The hearing was told the alleged incident took place in March 2014 when the woman said she was groped by a man who put his hand up her skirt as she enjoyed a night out with her sister in Yates, Hastings.

The man was evicted from the bar and later arrested after the woman – known as Miss A – reported the attack to Adams – who was on patrol in the town centre.

But when Miss A was giving her official police statement in a police car, this is when the inappropriate comments by Adams, who was married at the time, started.

Miss A told the hearing: “About the guy putting his hand up my skirt he said something like: ‘I don’t really blame him. Fair play to him’.

“I admit my dress was a bit short but does it give anyone the right to put their hand up it? He said he would do the same thing.

“He said he was getting aroused when I told him about the encounter with that guy.

“He asked if I liked him. It was just weird. He was creepy. I was shocked. He was a police officer in uniform.

“Then the officer said he wanted to use his handcuffs on me, to take me home and handcuff me to my bed.”

She told the panel how she believed she was reporting a sexual assault to someone she could “trust” and was meant to “protect” her.

She said: “I don’t even remember how it ended but I think I tried to laugh it off because it was an awkward situation really.”

Just hours later, Miss A said she received a naked selfie from the same officer.

She said: “The following morning I had a picture message on my phone of the sergeant naked. It showed him naked in a full-length mirror.

“I was a bit shocked. My sister said ‘you need to report it’ but he was a police officer.”

Miss A said she initially didn’t report the officer because he was a serving officer and “a man of power”.

But she reported the incident when Adams’ named appeared in press reports about a written warning he had received in 2020.

Chair of the disciplinary panel Mr Ireland said the panel was left with no choice but to dismiss Adams with immediate effect and ban him from ever serving as a police officer again.

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