'He was a bit of a creep... it was constant weirdness': Boy, 15, bombarded with messages by police officer, court hears

A highly-regarded police officer accused of using a cadet unit as a 'grooming playground' sent hundreds of messages a day to a teenage boy, a court has heard. PC Adnan Ali described the teenager as 'a good lad with a naughty streak' and told the boy he needed 'someone to scrub my back', jurors were told.

The cadet, whose complaints about the serving Greater Manchester Police officer led to an investigation, described PC Adnan Ali as 'a bit of a creep'. Mr Ali, from Old Trafford, is currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court and denies twenty charges including sexually assaulting two teenage girls and a 17-year-old boy, and misconduct in public office involving sexualised conversations.

The court heard how the young man believed Mr Ali's behaviour was 'constant weirdness', with the officer sending 'kisses' at the end of messages. He said he began following Mr Ali on Twitter as a 15-year-old, at the officer's suggestion, and the quantity of messages became excessive - sometimes running into hundreds a day.

READ MORE: 'He was a concerned citizen and shouted to ask if all was well - you each took grave exception to that'

The court heard how on one day, there were 336 exchanges between them, and Mr Ali began to increase the number of 'kisses' he finished messages with. The young man told jurors that after the first time he responded in a similar fashion, but then felt 'it was a bit awkward if I didn’t put them back'.

The former cadet, whose complaint led to Mr Ali’s arrest in October 2018, was interviewed on three occasions by police and his video recorded interviews were on Wednesday (March 29) played to the jury. In these, he told how he had applied to be a police apprentice and the defendant was on the interviewing