Leicestershire police officer had 'inappropriate' affair with 'vulnerable' colleague
A misconduct hearing found the officer 'abused' his position
Last updated 4th Oct 2024
A Leicestershire police constable had an “inappropriate” affair with a “vulnerable” colleague, a misconduct hearing found. The constable, who has since resigned from the force and was named only as Person X in the hearing report, was the woman’s superior at the time of the relationship.
The woman, named just as Person A, was going through marital troubles at the time of the affair, the report added. While the relationship was consensual, the misconduct panel said Person X had known Person A was in a controlling marriage, had seen her distressed at work and knew work was an “escape” for her. As such, he should have known she was “vulnerable” when he “began a sexual relationship with her”.
The then officer was also in a “more senior position” within the force than the woman and failed to declare the relationship to his superiors. This, coupled with Person A’s vulnerability, created an “imbalance of power” in the “hierarchy” of the relationship. The panel found this was an abuse of power on the part of Person X.
Persons X and A also engaged in “inappropriate” behaviour in the workplace, including sexual activity when they were out in the community for a job. The panel said Leicestershire Police colleagues “would have found this behaviour in the workplace to have been deplorable”.
Person X had attempted to hide his relationship with Person A from the misconduct panel. Responding to accusations he had arranged to meet Person A while he was on duty and out on a job, he told the panel it was a “disgraceful allegation” which he claimed tried to “damage” him and cause issues in his “happy 18-year marriage”.
However, the panel ruled he “attempted to conceal the true nature of their relationship to try to protect his marriage”. It added this was “deliberately misleading, deceitful and dishonest”.
The panel further considered allegations that Person X had failed to follow the force’s domestic abuse policy when Person A told him her husband had fitted a tracking device to her car. The panel ruled a “diligent police officer” would have completed a risk assessment and not doing so was a “serious departure from the professional standards expected from him”.
Further accusations were made against Person X around him liking “sexualised” images on X, formerly known as Twitter. The panel described some of the posts liked by the former officer as “particularly sexual and distasteful”, with many objectifying women.
Panel members found Person X had shown “blatant disregard for the potential impact of his conduct”, adding his likes “could have been viewed by hundreds or thousands of people”. They ruled his actions to be “extremely damaging” to public confidence in policing, saying people would be “appalled to learn of this behaviour”.
Person X also sent “abusive” and “offensive” messages about other colleagues. Members of the public would be “shocked” by these, the panel ruled.
Ultimately, the force ruled Person X’s actions to amount to gross misconduct. It said, had he not already resigned, the outcome would have been immediate dismissal from Leicestershire Police.
Detective Superintendent Alison Tompkins, head of the force’s Professional Standards Department, said:
“The behaviour demonstrated by the former officer fell well below the high professional standards of officers which are expected.
“This kind of gross misconduct harms public trust and confidence in policing and undermines the good order and work being carried out in our force. The panel found the actions of the former officer so serious that he would have been dismissed without notice, had he still been serving.”