Former police officer, Gavin Donaldson, met Anisha Yaseen when she was 17 years old. Donaldson was part of the team investigating allegations made by Ms Yaseen. Ms Yaseen was considered vulnerable at the time and had reported a rape allegation to police. 

The court heard that Donaldson had taken a statement from Ms Yaseen which he then passed onto his colleagues. He then emailed her and described himself as the ‘giant Australian officer’ that she had met with. 

The emails continued and Donaldson then passed on his private email address to her and stated ‘As long as it stays private’. He continued: ‘Just don’t tell the CID. They get funny about us being involved in their cases.’

Over a period of four years they exchanged thousands of messages over WhatsApp and Snapchat. The court heard that some of these messages were ‘extremely personal’ and others ‘sexual’. They had a ‘consensual sexual relationship’; however, this did not involve sexual intercourse. 

The relationship came to the attention of Police Scotland and was investigated by the anti-corruption unit. Donaldson sent Ms Yaseen a message requesting that she delete the messages. A 40-minute telephone conversation took place where he repeatedly asked her to delete the messages. This conversation was recorded. He pled guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to attempting to pervert the course of justice. 

Sentence was deferred in order for a criminal justice social work report to be obtained.