Pc found guilty of sex offences

Watch the background to the case

A policeman has been convicted of indecently assaulting three women while on duty but cleared of accusations of rape after a 10-week trial.

Dean Stewart, from Paisley, had faced charges of raping three women and indecently assaulting another six.

At the High Court in Glasgow, the 35-year-old former soldier was found guilty on three charges of indecency between 1998 and 2004.

Stewart will be sentenced on 15 December following reports.

The court heard he used his position as a police officer to make contact with the women who were all from difficult social backgrounds.

Woman abducted

All but three of the charges were found to be either not guilty or not proven by a majority verdict from the jury of eight women and six men. The 15th juror had been allowed to leave the case on Wednesday.

However, Stewart was convicted of indecency, including one charge of abducting and sexually assaulting a woman with a baton in his patrol car.

He had abducted his victim in the Ayrshire village of Barrmill on the false pretence of arresting her.

His police uniform, his car, his power and authority, gave him the perfect cover to carry out a series of sexual assaults Alan MacKay Advocate Depute

The case had initially come to light when a woman from Irvine claimed to have been raped by Stewart in 2004.

He had visited her as part of an inquiry and returned to the house the next day.

The officer claimed the woman had seduced him and the jury accepted this explanation, meaning one of the key elements of the case had collapsed.

Many of the other charges were historical, with little evidence other than the women's allegations.

Advocate Depute Alan MacKay told the jury: "Dean Stewart's weakness was not for consensual sex with willing women but for sexual assault.

Offenders register

"It is difficult to believe that a serving police officer could behave in such a way, particularly when he was in uniform and in the course of his duties.

He added: "His police uniform, his car, his power and authority, gave him the perfect cover to carry out a series of sexual assaults."

We do not tolerate this type of appalling behaviour in our communities and certainly do not tolerate it within our own organisation Strathclyde Police spokesman

Stewart was placed on the sex offenders register and will be sentenced in December following a risk assessment and a report from a consultant psychologist.

Bail for the officer, who had worked in Strathclyde's North Ayrshire division, was continued.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said that as soon as the allegations came to light Stewart was suspended from duty and that a misconduct investigation would now be considered.

He added: "We do not tolerate this type of appalling behaviour in our communities and certainly do not tolerate it within our own organisation.

"Police officers have a responsibility to behave in a professional and appropriate manner while both on and off duty.

"This individual abused his office and position of trust to commit a number of crimes on vulnerable females who he had a duty to protect."

The force expressed "heartfelt sympathies" for the victims of the crimes.