A FORMER Hampshire police officer is due to face trial today charged with serious child sex offences.

Ex police constable Keith Burgess has been charged with a number of serious offences and will appear at Guildford Crown Court today.

The 42-year-old has been charged with two counts of making an indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child.

He is also facing one count of sexual assault on a female and one count of meeting a girl under 16 following sexual grooming.

A former neighbourhood policing officer based at Southampton Central Police Station, he is further charged with three counts of misconduct in a public office. with two counts of making an indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child; one count of sexual assault on a female and one count of meeting a girl under 16 following sexual grooming.

A serving police officer when the offences are alleged to have happened, Burgess pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing last year.

He made history in Southampton when he opened the first neighbourhood surgery in one of the city’s mosques.

The officer also set up the drop-in surgery in Abu Bakr Masjid in Argyle Road ,where 1,200 Muslims worship, in April 2013 while serving as an officer as a member of the Newtown Safer Neighbourhood Engagement Team.

He became a bobby for the area in March 2013, was based in an office upstairs for a monthly session after the final Friday prayers of the month, for people to discuss crime, security and community matters in confidence.

Police have often visited the mosque and neighbouring Medina Mosque off St Mary’s Road to meet the community it was the first time a regular surgery has been held.

The role enabled him to signpost them to other partner agencies working with the police including environmental health and waste disposal services.