A police officer allegedly sent explicit images of himself to a domestic abuse victim and then tried to kiss her in a Moray police station, a trial has heard.
Kyle MacKinnon was a serving police officer based at Keith when he was sent to assist colleagues at an incident of domestic abuse on November 28 2018.
The following day he is alleged to have added the victim of that abuse on Snapchat before going on to have multiple conversations with her over the social media app.
MacKinnon, 38, is facing two charges of sending indecent images or communications to a woman without her consent and one charge of sexual assault whereby he is accused of trying to kiss her in an interview room at Keith police station.
He is standing trial at Elgin Sheriff Court and denies all the charges, which were alleged to have taken place between November 28 and December 18 2018.
‘I’d probably have a go’
MacKinnon’s then-probationer colleague PC Lewis Appleton told the court that the accused said to him: “For a domestic abuse victim she is not bad looking and I’d probably have a go at her.”
PC Appleton told fiscal depute Sharon Ralph that he put the “I’d have a go” comment down to “lad chat” but that it did “shock” him at the time.
The court has also heard how messages were sent to the woman from a Snapchat account named ‘Kyle’ which showed a man naked from the waist down, holding his penis while lying on a flowery duvet in a pink-walled room.
Contact stemmed from police callout
MacKinnon first crossed paths with his alleged victim after he was called to her address in Keith in response to a call about domestic abuse on November 27, 2018.
He then returned the following day to take a further statement and on the same day is alleged to have sent her a friend request on Snapchat.
The woman’s boyfriend was initially held on remand in prison for two weeks during which time the woman, having accepted that Snapchat connection request, sent messages back and forth with MacKinnon for what she described as “insider information” on her case.
But the 31-year-old woman alleges the officer then took things “too far” and began asking for Snapchat pictures that showed more of her face and less of just her shoulder before he sent at least two indecent images exposing his private parts to her.
Fiscal depute Ralph told the court that one image sent by ‘Kyle’ was accompanied by the caption: “So if you were here right now what would you want to do?xxx”
‘Still not feeling a bit naughty?’
Another similar image followed with the words: “Still not feeling a bit naughty?”
And a further exchange between this Snapchat account and the woman read: “Why are you saving the chats?”
She replied: “No reason. So can give (abusive boyfriend’s name) his phone back or the court will?”
The response was: “Yeh, the court will. Please delete the chats you have saved.”
When she asked “why” the reply came: “Cos I shouldn’t be texting you about this stuff if that makes sense.
“I shouldn’t have sent the pics either.”
His alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she did not give the officer her Snapchat details but that once she accepted his request he contacted her “nearly every night”.
“It was about day-to-day stuff,” she said. “Just asking how my day went normally. He spoke about his relationship and how that was going and how it ended. He told me it was ending or had ended.
“He told me that they had split up and that he had went through the same kind of experience, that she cheated on him so he knew how I felt.
“I thought it was very strange.”
Asked to stop sending filthy messages
She denied she was flattered by the messages.
“It got more personal,” she continued. “If I Snapped him, it was usually my shoulder then he started asking to see my face. That’s how it started.
“He never sent blank pictures it was always a Snap of himself. He would send indecent picture, more private photos, indecent ones of down below … of his naked penis.”
She claimed she knew it was his body despite his face not being on the show as she received others from him showing him in his car, living room and at the gym.
She also said that she repeatedly asked him to stop but would still reply to him because he would apologise each time.
The woman’s 31-year-old boyfriend, also gave evidence and claimed MacKinnon told the woman he could “get in a lot of trouble” for the sort of messages he’d sent her.
Allegation of sexual assault in station
Alleged contact between the pair stopped fully after an incident in which the woman claimed saw MacKinnon try to pull her in for a kiss as she went to leave an interview room at Keith police office at some point during the three-week period in November- December 2018.
“As I was leaving he pulled me back and tried to kiss me,” she told the court.
“He pulled my arm back then I walked away. I had just opened the door.”
She claimed she had no doubt about what he was trying to do after he later messaged her to apologise.
Asked her how his conduct towards her and the images made her feel, she replied: “Horrible. It just made me feel awkward.”
Defence suggests Snapchat account was fabricated
MacKinnon’s defence advocate Mark Stewart KC put it to the woman that the attempted kiss simply did not happen and that the images and messages were not sent by his client.
“Of the many, many photos and the many, many pieces of text you claim to have received we have two photos and none of which we can trace,” he said.
He told her one of the pieces of texts alleged to have been from MacKinnon, was “not one that he had created by him but simply represented part of what he had told you in verbal communications”.
“It’s easy enough to fabricate a header of ‘Kyle’ on Snapchat,” he added.
The advocate also made reference to comments such as the “I’d have a go” one allegedly shared between officers was probably quite common in 2018.
“That sort of comment is not accepted in the police force nowadays,” he told the woman.
“But let’s be candid. It’s the sort of comment that might have been heard in police circles a few years ago.”
She replied: “Quite possibly.”
The trial involving MacKinnon, of Dove Avenue, Elgin, continues in April.
For all the latest court cases in Elgin as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our new Facebook group.