Police Officers 'Abuse Positions For Sex'

Police officers are buying steroids from criminals and abusing their positions to have sex with vulnerable women, a police leader has warned.

Mike Cunningham said that most forces were investigating cases where officers had become embroiled with criminals after gym use escalated to taking body-building drugs.

There were also probes into claims of officers using their positions to persuade vulnerable women to sleep with them, he said.

Mr Cunningham, the Chief Constable of Staffordshire, said the two were the greatest corruption risks among the country's police officers.

He said: "We do our own assessment of corruption threats, one of them is steroid abuse and gym use by officers.

"What that starts off is very often officers going to the gyms, beginning to dabble in steroids, then the relationships they form when they're using steroids become corrupt and corrosive.

"There is good evidence of officers getting way out of their depth with serious criminals who they are beholden to."

Mr Cunningham, who was speaking after the release of an Association of Chief Police Officers' report into corruption, also said that dozens of officers across England and Wales were abusing their positions to have sex with vulnerable women.

He said: "We found that when we asked force professional standards departments that again most forces were investigating allegations against individual officers abusing their position for sexual favour."

One example is Stephen Mitchell, who worked for Northumbria Police and was given two life sentences in 2011 for two rapes and three indecent assaults.

The court heard how the 42-year-old abused women he met on duty, including a disabled teenager, heroin addicts and shoplifters.

Chief constables are to discuss plans for tackling corruption.