{"id":23589,"date":"2026-07-31T22:08:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23589"},"modified":"2026-07-31T22:08:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:08:56","slug":"horse-mounted-police-officer-sexually-assaulted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23589","title":{"rendered":"Horse-mounted police officer sexually assaulted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\" data-body-type=\"bodyblocks\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A man has been charged with sexually assaulting a horse-mounted police officer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">West Midlands Police has issued a warning to members of the public following incidents of &#8220;unacceptable behaviour&#8221; towards its mounted unit officers, and suggested it could be linked to a social media trend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The force has recently seen incidents of officers on horseback being approached and touched inappropriately, a statement said. It added it currently had ongoing investigations relating to incidents of this kind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A 36-year-old man has been charged and will appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Our horses are now a regular sight in the West Midlands, carrying out general patrols, helping keep people safe at large events, and engaging with communities across the region,&#8221; a statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The vast majority of interactions with them has been positive, but recently we have seen incidents of officers on horseback being approached and touched inappropriately &#8211; which may be linked to a social media trend.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The statement went on to say officers on horseback should only be touched in an emergency, and a criminal offence could be committed if not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Insp Nick Burton, mounted unit manager, said: &#8220;Our horses and riders love being out and about interacting with people, and we&#8217;re really pleased to see the positive reaction they get.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Our mounted officers are highly skilled and trained in dealing with a variety of situations on horseback and are happy to chat and stop for photos where they can &#8211; we just need people to behave safely and respectfully around them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police horses were introduced to the West Midlands back in February after a 26-year-absence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>Follow BBC Coventry &amp; Warwickshire on <\/em><a data-ylk=\"slk:BBC Sounds;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/curation\/p0cjdmkw?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>BBC Sounds<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbccwr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Facebook<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BBCCWR\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>X<\/em><\/a><em> and <\/em><a data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbccwr\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl\">Related internet links<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man has been charged with sexually assaulting a horse-mounted police officer. West Midlands Police has issued a warning to members of the public following incidents of &#8220;unacceptable behaviour&#8221; towards its mounted unit officers, and suggested it could be linked to a social media trend. The force has recently seen incidents of officers on horseback&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/cbae8d0ce3e6591f2733d082009016e3bfdbfc967a91016ec229dcdb2fc04d3f\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w1024_h576;quality_80;format_webp\/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fbbc_us_articles_995%2F64f68d93b7ec1b82597074ef63dcf9ba","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}