At one point, the police officer visited the woman during her trial shift at a strip club.
What was in dispute was who initiated the propositions of sex for money and inappropriate conversations, whether the following sexual acts between them were consensual and whether Coleman’s misconduct was deserving of criminal punishment.
Coleman faced a 12-day trial at Penrith District Court.Credit: Nick Moir
The prosecution and defence agreed the pair met on two occasions in public parks in March and April to discuss the woman’s complaint against her ex-boyfriend and ended up in Coleman’s police car.
The jury found that on one occasion, Coleman groped the woman without her consent in the police car. The jury rejected evidence that Coleman sexually touched her without her consent a second time in the car. They also rejected evidence that he sexually touched her without her consent twice in his police car on the second occasion.
On May 5, the woman went into a police station interview room with Coleman to sign a statement about her complaint regarding her ex-boyfriend.
The jury accepted Coleman again groped the woman without her consent inside the police interview room. But they found he did not sexually touch her a second time without her consent or rape her three times, as the prosecution had argued.
They found the oral sex performed by each of them as well as sexual intercourse was consensual.
The woman earlier told the court she felt forced into having sex with Coleman because of her fears that he would stop investigating her complaint if she refused to comply.
Police prosecutor Kate Nightingale had argued the woman could not have consented due to the abuse of trust and power and because she was restrained in the police cars and interview room. The jury did not accept this.
Nightingale argued Coleman “acted in the course of his public duties … so far below the acceptable standards” which was a grave breach of his duty.
Coleman was supported by his partner during some days of the trial.Credit: Rhett Wyman
The jury accepted he had abused his position of public office to a criminal standard.
Coleman denied forcing the woman into sex in the police room, telling the jury that the woman moved her chair, pulled up her dress and showed him her genitals, before asking how much money Coleman had.
The defence argued Coleman perceived the movement and question as a proposition.
“I’m an old bloke; I was excited,” defence barrister Joel Brook noted Coleman said in evidence.
The court earlier heard Coleman regretted having sex with the young woman or offering money for sex after she initiated discussions about escorting, and he knew he “did something wrong as a police officer”.
Brook had argued the misconduct rightly saw him fired from the police force in late 2022 but was not serious enough to warrant criminal punishment – an argument the jury rejected.
Coleman was arrested in May 2022 after the woman confided in two friends about a Snapchat message Coleman sent a week after the sexual acts in the police station, offering $700 for two hours of sex in a motel and asking the woman to wear a lacy g-string.
One of those friend’s parents were police officers, who urged the woman to report Coleman’s behaviour to police.
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