AVON and Somerset Police have taken part in a new documentary on Channel 4 showing how the local force deals with officer misconduct cases.

Story Films filmed the force's Professional Standards Department, including its Counter-Corruption Unit (CCU), to shine a light on an area of policing which acts as a guardian of the high standards expected of officers who vow to serve and protect.

In the first episode of the three-part series on Monday, January 29, the show looked into a misconduct hearing in which an on duty Weston-super-Mare police sergeant had sex with a drunk woman in his car.

Barrister Mark Ley-Morgan, representing the force, said in his opening statement to the misconduct hearing on Thursday, August 18, that the officer offered the woman a lift home while on duty after she was thrown out of Skinny Dippers nightclub in Weston-super-Mare in the early hours of Christmas Eve, 2017.

On the seventh day of a misconduct hearing, former police officer Lee Cocking spoke of his “complete panic” as the drunken woman straddled him and demanded sex in his car while he was on duty.

“I kept repeating the same things to her – ‘I have a family, I’m not interested, I can’t do this, I will lose my job, I could lose everything’," he said.

“I felt really awkward. I’m not a touchy feely person, I don’t like being cuddled, I just wanted to drop her off and go home.”

Mr Ley-Morgan said: “Why is an acting inspector, who was effectively overseeing the officers dealing with the night-time economy, taking home a female who is not particularly drunk?

“As far as I know, Avon & Somerset Police does not run a taxi service.”

The barrister told the panel: "There is no dispute sexual activity took place.

"This is an experienced police officer.

“One would have thought he would have no difficulty whatsoever fending her off.

“There is no evidence she has any kind of superhuman strength.

“How would she be able to remove his penis from his underpants if he did not want her to do that?"

At the end of the two-week hearing, the panel ruled that ex-Sgt Lee Cocking did not breach standards of professional behaviour for police officers in relation to honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct.

The episode of the documentary showed the woman's initial call to the police, in which she said she had been 'taken advantage of'.

It also featured interviews with Lee Cocking and his wife, who he is still married to - she explained she believes his version of events, and has forgiven him.