A FORMER Basingstoke police sergeant has been charged with sexual offences and misconduct alleged to have taken place at police stations across Hampshire.

Gerard Hutchings, 64, of Wingrove Road, Ashurst, has been charged with 29 offences, including indecent assaults, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and misconduct in a public office.

Basingstoke Gazette:

The charges relate to 18 complainants who were aged between 17 and 31 at the time of the alleged offences.

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The alleged offending took place between 1999 and 2007 in various police stations in the New Forest and north East Hampshire, where Mr Hutchings worked as an inspector.

He worked in Basingstoke for five years and left the force in 2007.

Hutchings was charged for the offences following an investigation by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary’s Operation Marmion team which began in 2021, following reports about this alleged offending.

He is due to appear at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, December 5.