Sex case Pc 'known to colleague'

A police officer accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a teenager was arrested after a detective at his own station recognised him, a court heard.

The detective said he recognised Pc James Beeton from a photo circulated to trace the 15-year-old's attacker.

Pc Beeton, 35, of Cambridgeshire police, denies assaulting the girl in Nottinghamshire in April 2003.

His lawyer claims he invented a story about sex with a teenage girl in order to "fit in" with bragging colleagues.

Mr Beeton persuaded the girl to perform a sex act on him in his BMW car, the jury heard.

The prosecution claim that five days later he took the girl and one of her 15-year-old friends shopping in Nottingham where he bought the girl a pink and white bra, a thong and a black mini-skirt.

Photo booth

The two of them also posed for a picture in a photographic booth, the court heard.

Mr Beeton was arrested on 20 October last year after Nottinghamshire Police circulated the photograph and another officer recognised him.

Det Con Mark Nichols, who works at Thorpe Wood station in Peterborough, said he had recognised the defendant when he saw an A4 black and white copy of the photo on a colleague's desk.

Mr Nichols said: "Shortly before entering the intelligence office I came into the station by this door and had seen the officer."

Giving evidence on Thursday afternoon, Mr Beeton said he had arranged to meet what he thought was an 18-year-old student through an internet chatroom but made up the story of having sex with her to impress colleagues.

'Macho' tale

The officer said: "I said I had had (sex) in a field. I would have said she was 17 to make it more shocking.

"I was trying to make myself look more of a macho individual than I actually was."

Asked by John Kirkpatrick, defending, if he had used the word "schoolgirl", Mr Beeton replied: "No, I did not. Student or college girl."

The officer said he had taken a picture with a girl in a photo booth after he had met her and her friend but said that there had been no sexual activity.

"Basically she wanted to prove to people at her school (with a photograph) that she had been out with an older man," he told the court.

The trial at Luton Crown Court continues.