Former police chief spared jail for sexually assaulting teenager in Scarborough in 1980s

Christopher Hogg, 56, a former Detective Sergeant and Inspector at North Yorkshire Police, was a teenager when he committed the offence in Scarborough in the mid-1980s, but the victim didn’t come forward to police until 40 years after it occurred, York magistrates were told.

Other victims from that same period came forward in 2016 when Hogg, who served in the county police force for nearly 30 years, was suspended from his duties after being accused of historic child sexual abuse in Scarborough when he himself was in his teens.

In November 2017, he was jailed for two-and-a-half years for indecently assaulting a child aged between 14 and 16, and two counts of gross indecency with a child under 14, after being convicted by a jury at Sheffield Crown Court.

After his release from prison, another victim came forward accusing him of indecent assault in Scarborough in the 1980s.

Hogg, formerly of Scarborough but now living in Selby, was charged with that offence in January 2017, when he was suspended from his police duties.

He admitted the offence, which occurred around the same time as the other sexual offences, and appeared at York Magistrates’ Court for sentence on September 25, after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting a man aged 16 or over.

None of the offences occurred when Hogg was a serving police officer.

Prosecutor Antony Farrell said that that Hogg had touched the victim intimately underneath his clothes when the defendant himself was 17 years of age.

At the trial in 2017 in respect of the other offences, the court heard that Hogg was a teenager when he sexually touched a much younger boy in a village near Scarborough.

A second boy, who was also younger than Hogg, was sexually assaulted at a property in the area in the mid-1980s.

Hogg joined North Yorkshire Police in 1988 and worked in the York Investigation Hub prior to his suspension.

Kevin Blount, mitigating, said that Hogg had “struggled with his sexuality” in his teenage years when the offences were committed in the 1980s.

He said that at the time, Hogg was “having a large number of sexual encounters” and trying to overcome his own childhood traumas.

He said that Hogg had joined the police cadets in his younger years and subsequently North Yorkshire Police where he “rose to the rank of inspector before the allegations came out”.

Hogg was at that time a married father-of-two but “all his life fell apart around him” after being convicted of the offences.

His distinguished public service “came crashing down when he found himself, a serving officer, serving a prison sentence.”

“It cost him his marriage and his career,” added Mr Blount.

Following his release from prison, Hogg had undergone rehabilitative work and “since then he has begun the difficult process of trying to piece his life back together”.

He had found new employment and that work was still available to him if he managed to avoid an immediate prison sentence.

Mr Blount said that Hogg was “extremely remorseful” for his behaviour as a teenager.

He added that Hogg “does not represent a risk” to children and did not have any sexual interest in them.

Malcolm Dodds, chairman of the magistrates’ bench, said although the ‘new’ offence “clearly” merited a jail sentence, it could be suspended because of Hogg’s age, the fact that it happened about 40 years ago and the steps he had since taken “to address your offending behaviour”.

He also noted that Hogg still had a “strong relationship” with his family, had new employment and the defendant had already been rehabilitated since his jail sentence in 2017.

Hogg received a four-month suspended jail sentence and was ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs.

He was ordered to sign on the sex-offenders’ register for seven years, but he was already subject to the same notification requirements for an indefinite period from his previous conviction.