A POLICEMAN who asked a prostitute to perform a sex act has been jailed for two and a half years.

David Gibson, who was an acting sergeant at the time of the offence, was told by a judge that that night you “pressed your own self-destruct button.”

Gibson,  44, who got the woman to perform a sex act on him in an unmarked police car after virtually blackmailing her, denied the allegation and claimed the forensic evidence against him had followed him masturbating alone in the vehicle.

Sentencing him for misconduct in a public office the Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, said, “For half your life you served Merseyside police with distinction. 

“You had real prospects of promotion and then in the early hours of November 6, 2014 you pressed your own self-destruct button.”

He pointed out that he could see Gibson nodding in the dock. “It is a pity you did not earlier,” he said.

The judge said he had taken an unmarked police car out into the Shiel Road area of Tuebrook “in the hope of finding a street worker to satisfy your sexual needs. You had, of course, no intention of paying for her services.

“You abused your position as a police officer to ensure that you would not have to pay her so when that hapless and desperate woman got into your car looking for business and realised that you were a police officer you toyed with and preyed on her obvious vulnerability.”

He said that Gibson had said he could arrest or fine her or “be nice to her” and she opted for the first two but he had no intention of taking those two options.

“What you wanted and what you did was to make her give you oral sex in return for letting her go. That was your idea of being nice to her. She felt that she was blackmailed into giving you oral sex and in truth your conduct was as close to blackmail as it could have been by another name.”

The judge continued: “Never in a million years did it occur to you that she would have the courage to complain about what you had done and report it to the police but report it she did.

“As the web closed in on you you tried to lie your way out the compelling and unanswerable forensic evidence which tied you to the crime. A crime for which you have shown no remorse and for which you must receive condine punishment.

"The public must know and be confident in the knowledge that severe punishment will be meted out to those police officers who betray the trust reposed in them. By your conduct you have brought shame on your wife, family and yourself.

“You brought shame on the police in general and on Merseyside police force in particular whose job is difficult enough without having to deal with the fall out from an offence such as yours which does untold harm to confidence and trust in the police.”

He added he accepted a prison sentence would be considerable for him as a once serving officer “but it is no more than your deserve”.

The Liverpool Crown Court jury of four men and eight women returned their unanimous guilty verdict after four and a half hours deliberations.

They heard that the 30-year-old victim said that the offence “made her feel sick and dirty and she since been suffering flashbacks.

Judge Goldstone pointed out to defence QC Nicholas Clarke that in running a trial “he played for very high stakes. It was, despite the consummate skill with which you presented his defence, an overwhelming case. I highlight his folly, it was his right, it was his choice.”

Mr Clarke told the court that Gibson, of Kirkman Fold, Rainhill, Merseyside, a married father-of-four, “had brought shame on himself.”

He had previously served the people of Liverpool well as a police constable and had been a parent governor at a local school and for many years coached childrens’ rugby.

He was the main breadwinner and his family are likely to lose their home and he will lose his job, salary and probably his pension. “There are many consequences for what he did