A former West Midlands Police trainee has been jailed after grooming and sexually abusing a vulnerable 13-year-old girl. Haider Siddique, 23, initially befriended the child on Snapchat after she noticed his posts regarding women’s rights. While serving as a student officer, Siddique engaged in full sexual intercourse with the victim on two occasions. The abuse led the young girl to fear that she had become pregnant. Siddique, of Allwood Gardens, Bartley Green, was apprehended only after a bus driver witnessed him stroking the girl’s back, hugging her, and kissing her while she was dressed in her school uniform. The driver raised the alarm, leading to the officer's arrest. Halfway through his trial earlier this year, Siddique admitted to two charges of sexual activity with a child. His guilty plea came just before the victim was scheduled to be cross-examined. An additional charge of child abduction, which he denied, was ordered to lie on the file. Judge Sarah Buckingham stated that nothing could "excuse or explain" his conduct and sentenced him to seven years and seven months in prison. Siddique had joined the force in August 2021. In March 2022, he accompanied the victim to Stechford Police Station regarding an unrelated matter. At the time, he claimed the girl was a friend of his sister who was interested in learning about Islam. However, suspicious officers drove the girl home separately, noting that his explanation "simply didn’t add up." On March 22, a bus driver who recognized the girl from previous trips saw the pair together. Prosecutor Tim Ashmore noted that the driver observed Siddique sitting close to the girl and touching her back before hugging her as he exited the bus. Concerned by the interaction, the driver contacted the police. Following the investigation, the victim revealed she had had sex with Siddique twice. Authorities later recovered an emergency contraceptive pill and a negative pregnancy test from her possessions. Evidence showed the two had "declared their love" in messages, and Siddique had even messaged the girl's mother while posing as the parent of a friend to arrange an overnight stay. Despite this, he later claimed the victim had blackmailed him into the encounters. In addition to his prison sentence, Siddique was issued a restraining order preventing any future contact with the victim or her mother and was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.