An Avon & Somerset Police officer who “bullied and harassed” a vulnerable, lone female over a two-hour train journey has been barred from policing. PC Steven Marshall committed gross misconduct and would have been dismissed had he not already resigned from the force, a panel ruled on Tuesday (June 13) after a two-day misconduct hearing.
He also sat in first class without a valid ticket and showed his warrant card when challenged by the GWR train manager in a bid to stay there. PC Marshall, who was a student officer based in Bridgwater and resigned in February 2022, refused to move from the seat for the whole trip from London Paddington to Taunton while he subjected a woman sat alone across the aisle to “degrading and humiliating” mockery on an overcrowded train packed with football and rugby fans.
The hearing was told the woman, Ms A, feared for her safety as other passengers laughed at his jokes at her expense and that she was still shaking the next day. She told the panel that she saw a sign for British Transport Police (BTP) during the journey on November 6, 2021, but didn’t feel she could call them because she believed PC Marshall, who was off-duty and travelling with a friend, was one of their officers, so she sat “trying to be invisible” as he “generated a feeling of resentment” towards her.
