A SERVING police officer from Mangotsfield has appeared in court to deny four criminal charges.
PC Mitchell Curtis, aged 33, has been charged with two counts of engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour, a domestic abuse offence.
He also faces one charge of intentional suffocation of a woman and of criminal damage to the same woman’s car.
The court heard the charges relate to allegations dating from between February 2021 and October last year, in the South Gloucestershire area.
Curtis, of Charnhill Drive, pleaded not guilty to all four charges when he appeared at Gloucester Crown Court in September, following an earlier appearance before Bristol magistrates in August.
A trial has been scheduled to take place in October of next year and is expected to last four weeks.
Curtis, who had been based in Bristol, was granted conditional bail.
The court heard that he has been suspended from duty with Avon & Somerset police since being arrested on the day the allegations were made in October of last year.
A police spokesperson said: “A parallel investigation is being carried out by our Professional Standards Department (PSD), which will focus on whether the standards of professional behaviour have been breached.”