Met Police officer, 32, who crept into colleague's room while she slept, started undressing her and sexually assaulted her is jailed

A Metropolitan Police officer who groped a colleague's breasts while she slept has been jailed.

Sijanta Thapa, 32, was found guilty of sexually assaulting the woman in 2020 when he crept into her bedroom and crawled into her bed after a drinks party.

He quit the force in disgrace last year ahead of a misconduct hearing that found he had groped another woman's breasts outside London's Heaven nightclub in January 2024.

The officer, formerly of the Met’s Central West command unit, was facing criminal prosecution after being caught on camera pulling the woman onto his lap, but the case was abandoned at trial. 

He handed in his badge in July before he could be fired.

Thapa sexually assaulted his first victim, also a police officer, after a gathering at a mutual friend's house on October 3, 2020.

Another colleague had given them a lift home, and the woman agreed to let Thapa stay at her house to save him a long taxi ride in the early hours.

She left him in the living room with the TV remote, expecting him to let himself out after a few hours and catch a train, and went to sleep in her room.

But a short while later, she awoke to find Thapa 'spooning' her from behind, with his right arm around her.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, the officer thought Thapa was perhaps merely being friendly after an enjoyable evening, and went back to sleep.

But she next awoke to find him fondling her bare breast and squeezing her nipple, having unbuttoned her dress and pushed aside her bra.

The officer pushed him away and ordered him out of the room - and Thapa later left the flat.

In a statement to court, the victim said the attack had shattered her 'sense of safety', and claimed she was 'punished' at work after reporting the assault in 2023.

She said: 'I had to go to counselling and trauma therapies on and off to deal with the traumatic nightmares and complete lack of any sense of safety and security, particularly at home.'

Sentencing Thapa to 21 months behind bars at Woolwich Crown Court last week, judge Alice Robinson said: 'You show absolutely no remorse and continue to deny the offence. This was not a minor sexual assault.'

The judge also referenced a panel's finding that Thapa grabbed a woman's breasts in 2024.

She had danced with Thapa and briefly kissed him, the misconduct hearing was told, before he led her to a bench, pulled her onto his lap, and placed his hands on her breasts.

CCTV captured the moment she was groped, before pulling away from Thapa and rushing to find her friends.

'This has left me feeling terrible', she later told police. 'An unknown male grabbed my boobs when I didn't want him to'.

She was crying, obviously distressed, and repeatedly said 'please help me', one of her friends revealed.

Heaven security got involved and detained Thapa, who was insisting that the incident had been consensual.

In his police interview, Thapa suggested he had 'implied consent' to touch the woman, and claimed she had been 'grinding' against his lap.

But the misconduct panel concluded he had been lying.

The Metropolitan Police declined to comment.