A former Hampshire police inspector has told a jury he felt he was "preventing the destruction" of young men's lives men by strip-searching them.
Gerard Hutchings, 66, is on trial accused of bringing young men into his office and stripping them naked for "unjustified" searches to fulfil his sexual desire.
Yesterday he was questioned by prosecutor Simon Jones on the seventh day of his trial at Bristol Crown Court.
Hutchings denied the sexual aspects of the allegations and touching any of the men during the searches.
He told the jury that he felt he "achieved something useful for each and every one" of the young men he had stripped naked and searched while working as an inspector for Hampshire police between 2000 and 2007.
Hutchings said he carried out the searches "out of a warped sense of doing something good".
Asked about the strip searches, he said: "It was to teach them a sort of shock that if they ever ended up in prison, that would be part of what happened to them."
He added: "Of course it was wrong, and I regret it to my dying days, but I did it for reasons I thought were justified at the time.
"It was to prevent the complete destruction of their lives."
Hutchings told jurors he is not attracted to men, and he was in, and continues to be in, a relationship with a married woman who he has refused to name.
Hutchings said he did not recall specifics from any of the complainants, but told the jury that two categories would see a young man strip-searched by him - if they were arrested for a low-level drug offence, or if they showed poor behaviour towards police.
He said he denied one allegation of misconduct because the claimant is in his 30s, which does not fit the category for the "procedure", saying he would consider someone that age to be too set in their ways.
READ MORE:
The defendant, of Wingrove Road, Ashurst, in the New Forest, denies five charges of indecent assault, five of causing a person to engage in a sexual activity without consent and one of misconduct in public office.
Following his arrest in 2023, Hutchings gave a prepared statement to police in which he accepted conducting the strip searches but denied any sexual intent or physical contact.
“I never received any sexual gratification from any aspect of my job,” he told officers.
The trial continues.
Share