A serving Kent Police officer has been found not guilty of misconduct in a judicial or public office for “abusing his position for a sexual purpose”.

Matthew Peall, who is based in Canterbury, had been suspended from duty since being charged with the offence.

The 47-year-old has been on trial at Southwark Crown Court this week where it was alleged he shared flirtatious text messages, emails and phone calls with a care home manager while investigating a burglary of an elderly client in 2019.

Giving evidence during the hearing, the complainant told the jury she viewed her exchanges with the officer as “banter” and denied ever having an emotional or sexual connection with him.

She also claimed he wanted to have “no strings” sex with her, the court heard during the trial.

The court heard Peall visited the complainant’s house twice on October 22 and 28, 2019 to obtain witness statements in person about the burglary, which had been reported earlier that month.

While the two had been in contact since October 10 and continued to be up to March 3, 2020 these were the only two occasions they met in person.

In his prepared statement, he accepted there had been inappropriate flirtation on text messages and that he should have reported it.

However, he did not accept he was misconducting himself in a public office and pleaded not guilty to the offence.

The jury returned a unanimous verdict shortly before 11.40am this morning (August 9), having been in deliberation for around two-and-a-half hours.

A spokesperson for Kent Police said in a statement: “PC Matthew Peall has been found not guilty of misconduct in a public office following a trial at Southwark Crown Court.

“The charge related to an allegation he had pursued an inappropriate relationship with a witness during the course of a burglary investigation in Canterbury between October and December 2019, investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

“PC Peall has been suspended from duty since the allegations were first reported and disciplinary proceedings will now continue following the outcome of the criminal case.”