Former Herts Police officer broke bail conditions by contacting ex-girlfriend, misconduct panel hears
A former Hertfordshire police officer who broke bail conditions to contact an ex-girlfriend would have been sacked if he had not already resigned, a misconduct panel concluded.
The former officer, who cannot be named and is referred to as PC X, had been arrested as part of a stalking investigation and was ordered to avoid any contact with his ex-girlfriend, a police colleague referred to as Ms A.
But PC X attempted to call Ms A before texting a safe word they had agreed on during their relationship, followed by: “Can we talk before things get even messier?”
The criminal investigation into PC X for reported stalking and coercive and controlling behaviour resulted in no further action after his arrest.
The police misconduct panel, held yesterday (Tuesday, June 2), found that PC X had also sent misleading messages by pretending to be a colleague, and had then deleted some of the messages.
Chairing the misconduct panel, Assistant Chief Constable Vaughan Lukey said PC X’s behaviour had been “intentional and deliberate” and had “caused psychological harm” to Ms A.
ACC Lukey said: “The misconduct found proven was premeditated, planned and targeted.
“There was a concealing of wrongdoing by deleting messages.
“The actions continued after the former officer knew that his behaviour was wrong.
“The only appropriate and proportionate finding is that the officer would have been dismissed had they not ceased to be a serving member of the police force.”
After initially denying the allegations against him, PC X had later accepted that his actions amounted to gross misconduct. He resigned from Hertfordshire Constabulary earlier this year and did not attend yesterday’s hearing.
Hannah Hinton, representing the Appropriate Authority that brought the case against the former officer, said he had “caused considerable emotional distress” to Ms A and had “emphatically” broken his bail conditions.
“That type of conduct, for any member of the public with a requirement to observe a court order, is extremely serious,” she said.
The panel was not required to determine whether a number of other allegations – including that PC X had visited Ms A’s home and attempted to use his foot to wedge the door open and that he had threatened to punch her new partner – were proven on the balance of probabilities. Those allegations were denied by former PC X.
Martyn Hynes, representing the former police officer, said: “The officer’s resignation adequately reflects [his] insight and his awareness that he is not suitable for the role and that his behaviour fell far below the standards required.
“The officer’s judgement has been affected by the fact that this was a relationship between the parties.”
After the hearing, Deputy Chief Constable Andy Mariner said: “We do not tolerate behaviour like this in Hertfordshire Constabulary.
“As the panel found, this former officer would have been sacked if he had not resigned beforehand.
“I want to reassure our community that we do not tolerate such behaviour and anyone falling short of our high professional and ethical standards has no place in our organisation.”