Police officer who targeted vulnerable women jailed

A former police officer who sexually assaulted a "vulnerable" mother while investigating a crime she reported has been jailed.

After being assigned to her case, Patrick Banks, a detective constable at West Yorkshire Police, asked the woman to translate suggestive messages from French into English while sexually touching her and smelling her hair, a court heard.

Banks also brought presents for the woman's children, sent her messages from his personal phone and visited her when he was off duty - despite claiming he was at work.

The 42-year-old admitted misconduct in a public office and sexual assault and was sentenced to three years in prison at Sheffield Crown Court earlier.

The court heard how Banks, who resigned in 2025, had been assigned to investigate after the single mother complained to police she had been the victim of a sexual assault in Leeds in April 2025.

During his investigation, he composed messages to her in French then asked her to translate them.

Prosecutor Mark Bates said the messages included: "I like you a lot", "I want to take off your underwear with my teeth", and "Do you miss sex".

Banks also viewed the woman's social media account more than 100 times.

The victim told the court: "What revolts me today is that the man who was supposed to protect me took advantage of this vulnerability.

"This trauma prevents me seeing the beauty and goodness in the world."

The court was told how Banks also had inappropriate contact with a second woman, who had also reported a sexual assault to West Yorkshire Police.

Bates said police recovered 53 pages of messages between the defendant and this second woman, some asking her about personal matters, including her previous employment as a sex worker.

He also asked her for a "peck on the cheek".

Officers also found the woman's mobile phone in Banks's house after he had told her it was being sent for forensic examination.

The prosecutor said West Yorkshire Police had only one official record of the defendant visiting either of the women's homes on official police business.

Sentencing Banks, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said: "It is a particularly aggravating feature of this case that you grotesquely abused your position as a police officer whilst working in the safeguarding unit of the West Yorkshire Police when you were supposed to be investigating sexual crimes perpetrated upon vulnerable women.

"You were unhampered by scruples of any kind and your serious misconduct eclipsed your professional duty."

He added: "This form of corrosive conduct must, therefore, be punished with severity."

One of Banks's victims said after the hearing: "He came to our home under the pretext of an investigation and gained our trust.

"I will never forget the day he assaulted me and the psychological scars remain to this day and I no longer recognise myself in the mirror."

Det Ch Supt Tanya Wilkins, head of West Yorkshire Police's professional standards directorate, added: "The actions of this former officer are abhorrent and clearly fall far short of the standards we expect all officers and staff to uphold."

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