Edinburgh police custody officer sexually assaulted a constable and a nurse while on staff nights out

An Edinburgh police custody officer sexually assaulted a constable, a fellow custody officer and a nurse while on staff nights out in the city centre.

Rishi Bawa, 35, groped two women while socialising with police officers and civilian employees in pubs in Edinburgh city centre. Bawa, who worked in the custody area of the capital’s St Leonard’s police station, also fondled the buttocks and penis of a male colleague during a separate drunken incident.

Bawa had resigned from his custody job after successfully applying to become a police officer but was forced to ditch his career plans with Police Scotland following his arrest in 2022.

Bawa, from Stirling, pleaded guilty to three sex assaults when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in December and he returned to the dock for sentencing today, Tuesday, February 27.

Fiscal depute Oliver Davidson-Richards read out a written narration detailing the events leading to the sexual assaults. Mr Davidson-Richards said Bawa worked as a custody officer and attended a police work night out at the Pear Tree pub in Edinburgh city centre on August 18, 2021.

The fiscal said a woman who worked alongside Bawa as a nurse practitioner with Police Scotland also attended and during the evening she was returning to her seat after visiting the toilet. The court was told as she walked between benches in the pub garden Bawa had approached her and as they passed each other “she felt his hand on her bottom”. The woman shouted “don’t touch me like that again or I’ll slap you” and Bawa walked away laughing.

The court heard Bawa had also sexually assaulted a police officer and a custody officer on a night out with colleagues in Edinburgh two months later.

Ms Davidson-Richards said the large group of police staff and civilian workers met for drinks in the afternoon and six of them ended up at the CC Blooms pub around 11pm on October 4, 2021.

The fiscal said “at some point [the the police officer] found herself face to face with the accused” when he “placed his hand on her left breast”. The court heard the woman shouted “what the f***” at Bawa who was walking away from her. The fiscal said: “She was very angry and told the rest of the group."

The court heard Bawa then approached a male police custody officer during the same evening and grabbed hold of his buttocks on three occasions despite being told to stop. The fiscal said the disgraced custody officer had also “grabbed the complainer’s penis using an under cup grip for three seconds” before walking off laughing.

The court heard Bawa, now working as part-time chef, had later apologised to the man claiming “he could not remember due to being drunk”.

All three sexual assaults were subsequently reported by the victims to a police sergeant before being referred to senior management. Bawa attended at Cathcart police station in Glasgow with his solicitor and was arrested and charged in September 2022.

Sheriff Peter McCormack said: “You have pled guilty to three charges of assault under section 3 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009. All three offences involved touching the private parts of three colleagues, two female and one male.

“You have lost you employment as a result and you appear in front of the court as first offender. I am going to mark the offences with a fine.”

The sheriff sentenced Bawa to pay a fine of £840 and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for five years. A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We are aware of the outcome of the court proceedings. He is not an employee of Police Scotland.”