A North Yorkshire Police officer who used the national police computer system to target women has been jailed for 15 months.

Matthew Daniel Fisher, 37, of Selby, was found guilty last month of sexual assaults on two women he was supposed to be helping when he served with the force.

He also admitted two misconduct in a public office charges after engaging in sexual activity with a woman in a police van outside Selby bus station and having sexual contact with another woman who was on a night out while he was on duty.

Judge Michael Mettyear said he accepted that married father-of-two Fisher had done good, even brave work as police officer.

But he told him: “You let yourself down, let your family down and let the police force down."

The judge told Hull Crown Court: “You clearly have a high sexual appetite and you found it difficult to resist feeding that whenever you could.

“Anybody who took your eye and attracted you, you wanted to make contact with in the hope that sexual activity would follow.”

Jurors heard the twice-married officer would meet women while he was on patrol in the Selby area and flirt with them, often offering his sexual services in their own homes.

Some of the sexual contact was consensual while other acts were not, the judge was told.

The court was told Fisher has offered his resignation as a police officer, but this has not yet been accepted for procedural reasons.

But the judge said he accepted the defendant’s career in the force was over.

He was also told how Fisher had been commended during his career in the police – for talking down someone who was threatening to jump from a bridge in Selby in 2007.

His barrister, Steven Crossley, said he was also likely to have received another commendation for grabbing someone threatening to jump from the Ouse Bridge, near Goole, in 2011, but these proceedings intervened.

Fisher was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault against two women and one misconduct charge relating to using a police computer to look up personal details. He admitted charges of misconduct in relation to having consensual sex while on duty.

Fisher stood in dock wearing a black suit, a white open-neck shirt and sporting a closely shaved hair cut.

He showed no emotion as he was jailed.