Moment police sergeant is arrested after being spotted naked and masturbating near children’s play area – as he is handed sexual risk order

This is the moment a police sergeant was arrested after he was caught naked in a park near a children’s playground after being given a sexual risk order.

Simon İnce claimed that he was jogging and was only wiping the sweat off his clothes after dog walkers saw him naked.

But police found incriminating images on his phone showing him masturbating naked in the same woodland in Chatham, Kent, about five months earlier.

He was dismissed by Kent Police in a speedy misconduct hearing in 2024, but escaped a criminal conviction because prosecutors ruled there was no evidence he had been seen engaging in obscene behaviour.

But this week the 52-year-old father was granted a sexual risk order (SRO) applied for by Kent Police.

The judge ruled it “reckless” that Ince had acted for sexual gratification and enjoyed the thrill of doing so outdoors, and described his evidence as “evasive and untrue”.

It means the disgraced former police officer is banned from taking off his underwear or urinating in public unless he uses a public toilet, and is banned from going to the Horsted Valley nature reserve, which includes the park where he undressed.

It was stated that if the order was violated, İnce could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and police chiefs would be “closely monitored”.

Following the incident, Kent Police were hoping to be charged with either indecent exposure or outraging public decency after a file was handed over to the Crown Prosecution Service.

However, the CPS ruled that the offense could not be prosecuted as there was no evidence that Ince had been seen by anyone and therefore did not constitute a criminal offence.

İnce previously admitted committing a lesser public order offense at Brighton Magistrates’ Court in September 2024 and was given a conditional warning requiring him to attend a ‘thinking skills’ course.

The court stated that İnce was seen naked ‘near the children’s playground’ by people walking their dogs and that this situation disturbed them.

İnce’s lawyer requested that he be given a conditional warning; this was a punishment that prevented prosecution but required someone to plead guilty and comply with certain conditions for a certain period of time.

After taking advice from the CPS, Kent Police representatives at the court agreed and Ince was ordered to attend an online ‘thinking skills’ course and stay away from the Vale Drive car park.

He avoided being listed on the sex offenders’ register, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, a sentence that would have been imposed had he been convicted of indecent exposure.

Following the conclusion of the criminal case against İnce, Kent Police applied for an SRO, which the judge accepted at Medway Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Judge Roy Brown heard the former police sergeant, who now works for a contractor at a utility company, was first seen naked in woodland by a passerby on February 1, 2024.

In an eyewitness statement read out in court, he said: ‘As I was passing through the bushes I jumped out, stopped immediately and said: ‘I think there’s a naked person.’

The next day, the same dog walkers noticed ‘a tan colored thing hiding in the woods’.

‘I saw what I believe to be the same male from yesterday,’ they added.

Another member of the public managed to take a photo of him near the bushes without any clothes on.

After he was noticed, İnce quickly put on “fit-protecting clothes” and started running in the park, but soon the police arrived and he was handcuffed and taken away.

The body-worn footage shows the moment when the police arrived and told İnce, who was running away, to “stay where you are” and ran into the bush area to arrest him.

When asked why he ran away in court, İnce said: ‘As I explained to them, I said that I did not know that he was a police officer, that’s why I ran away.

‘I understand that seeing me running made me feel guilty, but I wasn’t doing anything.

‘I wasn’t naked when they arrested me, I was clothed.’

İnce, who was arrested on suspicion of exhibitionism and violating public morality, said to the police officers who detained him, “I know, I am a police officer.”

He informed them that he had been in Maidstone but did not have a warrant card on him.

‘I actually disappeared to go to a toilet,’ he told the police officer.

‘As you can see, I am running. I’m sweating.”

While İnce is seen being taken away and put into the back of a police car, one of the officers calls a colleague and says he needs to talk about “a somewhat sensitive issue.”

Speaking in court this week, İnce said that after the run, he would undress to cool down and do ‘stretching, squatting and lunging’ in an area ‘out of public view’.

He said: ‘I take off my clothes and wring them out because of the sweat, and because it’s cold I shake them and put them back on.’

Judge Brown asked: ‘If it was something innocent, why didn’t you want to admit it?’

İnce replied: ‘He may not be seen as innocent.’

Later, during a search on his mobile phone, naked images of İnce and a video of himself masturbating in the same place on August 19 and September 5, 2023 were revealed.

“These were designed for my partner,” İnce said in court.

However, Kent Police representative Isabella Crowdy told the court that İnce’s wife did not remember this conversation.

The disgraced police officer tried to defend himself by claiming he was ‘overwhelmed’, citing his fear of having Alzheimer’s disease and sadness over his late mother’s birthday.

He told the court he self-medicated with alcohol to cope with the stress of being a civil servant but had since become sober.

İnce added that he also took it. works as a coping mechanism and ‘runs to the point where he is physically ill’ but has since resigned because he claims it ‘almost had the effect of PTSD’.

He denied that his act was sexually motivated as he took off his clothes behind trees, hedges and brambles to avoid being seen.

‘I’m not trying to be a voyeur,’ he said.

However, he was asked why he did not change his clothes to his home, which was a 10-15 minute walk away.

He replied: ‘I thought it was so overgrown I thought I wouldn’t be seen because of the hedges and trees.’

However, Judge Brown said he had “no doubt” that İnce had committed sexually explicit acts on at least four occasions (in August 2023, September 2023 and twice in February 2024).

The judge said: ‘For reasons that are still unclear, Mr İnce decided to take off all his clothes and masturbate for his sexual gratification in a public park, albeit a relatively secluded place.

‘I am confident in this decision because in three out of four of these incidents the explanation put forward has not withstood any cross-examination or scrutiny.

‘I do not accept for a moment that he should take off his clothes, let them dry and put them back on because it is too hot.

‘He did this for sexual gratification.’

The judge said İnce did this because he ‘enjoyed the thrill of doing it outdoors’ but probably ‘hoped not to be seen or caught’.

But he said the former officer ‘really didn’t care and was uncaring’ and was ‘not convinced that this was the only time he stripped naked here’.

“His statements were evasive and untruthful when it came to his justification for undressing and masturbating,” Judge Brown said.

The judge said in a definitive conclusion: ‘I did not believe Mr. İnce’s statement.’

Since his arrest, İnce has taken steps to improve his mental health but the judge said there was ‘nothing that touches on his sexual behaviour’ and believes he ‘continues to deny it’.

‘He has not confronted this behavior,’ Judge Brown said.

‘There was no explanation given as to why he acted this way.

‘There is absolutely no telling whether he will behave the same way in the future if he returns to drinking. [or if he has] There are problems at home.’

He added: ‘There is no evidence that he has taken steps to address his sexual abuse, as he does not admit to having engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior in the past. I’m glad it happened.’

The case came to light when the CPS confirmed that the case had been discontinued on 29 January 2024, and following these statements, İnce fled his family’s home for safety reasons.

The father of two admitted pleasuring himself in public but tried to tone down his behavior in an email ahead of the disciplinary hearing, saying he was hiding from public view at the time.

His claim was ignored and he was dismissed without notice after his actions were judged to have breached the threshold for gross misconduct.

Chief Constable Tim Smith concluded that the officer had acted “in search of sexual gratification by masturbating in public” and rejected any suggestion that this was a “private” act.

Summarizing his decision in a report, he added: ‘I do not accept that steps taken to hide from view are sufficient to justify such behaviour.

‘It is possible that children playing in the park could have easily entered the same area and seen PS İnce naked and masturbating, which may have directly harmed the children. This seems to be a risk that PS İnce is ignoring.’

Ince is now subject to a five-year SRO and will be subject to reporting requirements and monitoring.

Ince, from Chatham, was also ordered to pay costs totaling £2,516.

Although SROs are a civil order that can be enforced without conviction, violation of this order is a criminal offense.

Detective Superintendent Mat Scott, of Kent Police’s Professional Standards Department, welcomed the ‘significant five-year order’ and confirmed that Ince will be closely monitored.

He said: ‘Following the arrest of Simon Ince in February 2024, Kent Police investigated all available criminal and misconduct options to ensure he could no longer serve as a police officer or pose a risk to the public.

‘This situation led to İnce being dismissed at the first opportunity and an application for a Sexual Risk Order being made following the conclusion of the criminal case against him.

‘I welcome the court’s decision to impose an important five-year judgment. During this period, İnce’s activities will be closely monitored and violation of the order will constitute a crime.

‘City people rightly expect the best from police officers. Ince betrayed that trust and I am confident that the order now in force will help prevent further crime and protect the public.’