Herts Police officer sacked for gross misconduct after drunken night out with colleagues
A police officer with Hertfordshire Constabulary has been dismissed and barred for life after a drunken Christmas night out with colleagues.
Former PC Bailey Webb was arrested after a drunken night out with colleagues.
A misconduct panel found former PC Bailey Webb “sexually harassed” colleagues and upheld 10 of 12 allegations against him.
He was found to have made unwanted physical and sexual contact with a female officer, used a racist word, used sexist or misogynistic language, and was abusive and threatening to another officer.
In December 2022, Webb and his colleagues travelled to London from Ware for a night out, having started drinking around lunchtime.
On their minibus Webb – who is of mixed heritage – sang along to music that included a racist word. It made his colleagues feel “uncomfortable”, but Webb claimed it was not used “with any malice or ill-intent”.
The panel found Webb “still does not understand the severity of using such a discriminatory word”.
When they stopped at South Mimms services, Webb told other male officers he wanted to “f***” a female officer, referred to as PC B.
He repeated the comment to other officers during the night, after their group headed to bars called Hucksters and Pergola.
At Hucksters, Webb took the phone of PC A, another female colleague, and messaged her boyfriend: “Let’s do dirt[y] sex tonight.”
Later in the evening, he told her “I might just punch you in the vagina” after she ate limes intended to accompany a round of drinks.
The panel also found Webb had touched PC A on the bottom several times. Towards the end of the evening, Webb then told PC A: “I’m not going to lie I’ve wanted to s**g you all night.”
Around midnight, Webb’s colleagues told officers from the Metropolitan Police about what had happened, and he was arrested.
Webb admitted to the panel he had told officers he wanted to “f***” PC B, but said: “This was not uncommon language used among colleagues at the time.”
Among colleagues spoken to by the panel, “one of his colleagues agreed [this was not uncommon], one disagreed whilst another said that they had heard similar words being used at times”.
The panel found his comment was “appalling, crude and vulgar”, and their report said it created “an environment for discrimination, misogyny and sexual predators”.
Webb also admitted sending a message to PC A’s boyfriend, describing it as an “ill-thought-through joke”. He denied eight of the 12 allegations.
Webb estimated his level of drunkenness had been “7 or 8 out of 10” upon arrival at Pergola. Before arriving at Hucksters, he had drunk “the best part of three bottles of wine”, and was later so drunk he “suffered blackouts”. The panel said his “choice” to become drunk “increases his blameworthiness”.
During the night out, Webb was also found to have told a male colleague to “shut the f*** up” during a discussion about a “cancer scare”, and later said: “We’re boys aren’t we? If you cross me I’ll f***ing kill you.”
While Webb denied making the “shut the f*** up” comment, he said: “Such words were commonly used between male officers in jest copying language used in a show called The Inbetweeners.”
The misconduct panel deemed his actions to be against police standards for authority, respect and courtesy, and equality and diversity.
It found his “sexist, misogynistic, and aggressive language and behaviour (including physical touching)” was “targeted” against PC A, PC A’s partner, and PC B, and constituted “sexual harassment”.
They said his behaviour “amounted to gross misconduct which is so serious that your dismissal is justified”. He was dismissed from Hertfordshire Constabulary without notice.