AN Avon and Somerset police officer sent an image of himself in uniform to a vulnerable victim of crime for sexual purposes, a misconduct hearing will be told.

The officer, known only as PC Y, used a profile picture of himself that was "of a sexual nature" on a website.

He contacted the woman, known as X, through the website and the following day sent her the photograph of himself in uniform.

The two began messaging each other and on September 10 last year, PC Y, while on duty, entered into "protracted sexual conversations", the hearing will be told.

When interviewed by police, PC Y conceded that he should not have engaged in a sexual conversation while at work.

The misconduct hearing on Wednesday (December 2) will be told that PC Y breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour.

It will be claimed that PC Y used the image of himself in his uniform to gain X's trust so he could have a no-strings sexual encounter with her.

He is accused of gross misconduct.