A Lincolnshire Police officer committed gross misconduct after accessing records of four people on more than 130 days, including informing a person close to the suspect of sexual abuse allegations made against them.
An accelerated misconduct hearing for the officer – who had already resigned from the force – was held at Lincolnshire Police headquarters in Nettleham on Monday morning, with the force’s Chief Constable Chris Haward chairing the meeting.
The officer, who was not named due to conditions on reporting imposed by Chief Constable Haward, was found to have accessed records of four separate people over the course of 134 days, using police’s computer system to do so, between September 2019 and August 2021.
It was alleged the officer breached confidentiality, as well as orders and instructions, and showed discreditable conduct by using their role in the police to access personal data without authority or reasonable excuse.
The officer was part of the Paedophile Online Investigation Team, and disclosed allegations of sexual abuse to a person with a close interest in the case, specifically the suspect of which the allegations are aimed at, as well as the officer’s partner for a non-police purpose.
The alleged victim of sexual abuse was said to have suffered with their mental health before the incident, which involved having delusions and committing self-harm.
The officer reviewed the case and informed the victim, before reporting it to their line manager, and then is believed to have notified another person, who told the suspect. The officer admitted guilt at the time but said they did it for safety reasons.
The hearing heard the officer accessed the records and conducted a significant number of searches on ‘sensitive data’ regarding the victim, suspect and two other people, as well as looking at two addresses in Boston, without relevant authority.
Presenting evidence, Gemma Roets said the officer had “no authority” to access the information and addresses of the people in question, and added that incidents like this can undermine trust in the force.
“Officers should access this information on a need to know basis, it is not acceptable to utilise it through general curiosity. There should always be a specific policing purpose.
“If the public knew that this was happening, there would be concerns that officers could and would look at their records for their own personal gain.
“GDPR regulations require lawful access to information, and the public expect the highest standards, the officer is solely responsible, has admitted to this and now resigned.”
The officer was handed a regulation notice on August 12, 2021 and a further notice on August 25, before resigning on January 17, 2022.
They reported their own wrongdoing to their line manager, and it was accepted that while guidance was loose from people above the officer, they were given plenty of data protection guidance to avoid instances like this, the hearing heard.
Chief Constable Haward concluded by saying that the “only outcome” of the hearing was to call the act gross misconduct, stating the officer would have been dismissed from the force had they not already resigned.
“The subject was an otherwise high performing and highly professional officer who committed to nearly 30 years of service, dealing with serious crimes throughout.
“Looking at character references and the difficulties that [they] faced at the time, but also the frequency of breaches and level of intrusion of numerous individuals; sadly despite their otherwise good record, the breaches were so severe that this was the only outcome available.”
The former officer will be sent a notice of the verdict in the coming days and offered a right to appeal the verdict, despite their previous admittance to the offences.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
With a voice recognised across the globe, Colin McFarlane stands as one of the biggest stars to come out of Lincoln.
Star of stage and screen, Colin spoke to The Lincolnite Podcast this week, to discuss his work, family, and his own roots in the city.
Colin has starred in major motion pictures including ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight’, and also voices characters in iconic children’s TV shows Peppa Pig and Hey Duggee.
When asked about his association with Lincoln, Colin told host Ronnie Byrne about moving to the city as a child with an RAF family.
While spending most of his time in London, Colin regularly makes the journey to North Hykeham, where his parents still live.
Colin also gives examples of the many voices he does for television shows, including the iconic voice from ‘The Cube’ in both the UK and the USA.
Listen to the full interview here:
The interview comes in the same week Colin hosted the Lincolnshire Business Excellence Awards, celebrating the best businesses across the county, in a variety of different sectors.
A review of South Kesteven District Council’s constitution – which opposition members have accused of limiting democracy – has been passed.
However, senior councillors have promised to take the document back to the drawing board to address a number of concerns raised about the document.
The review aimed to tidy up inconsistent anomalies within the constitution which had created confusion during meetings.
Conservative Councillor Linda Wootten, who led on the latest revisions, told the council: “The key principle of this review has been openness, transparency, and engagement, engagement.”
She said there had been a number of workshops and chances to make comments on the changes, and added: “I’ve been quite perturbed today that I’ve had lots of amendments and papers stuffed on my desk, which has got rather confusing.
“I was also a bit upset to be quite honest that the democratic officer has been running around trying to accommodate it all and I do apologise for that.”
Key issues revolved mainly around planning, including the amount of time councillors had to speak, the order of speakers and when ward councillors who neighboured applications’ borders could speak.
However, questions were also raised about a new requirement to submit questions in advance.
Independent Councillor Ashley Baxter said: “We are supposed to be enhancing openness and scrutiny.
“This has been changed so that the leader and the chair of cabinet can, at his discretion, quash people from asking difficult questions at cabinet… this is a backward step.
“I don’t want any rule changes. I don’t think it’s right to reduce the amount of accessibility and scrutiny for this council and that’s why I oppose these.”
Councillor Virginia Moran said the changes were “substantive”.
“We’re basically making ourselves less and less accessible and that’s not the way to go,” she said.
“If anything we should make ourselves more accessible and make members of the public feel more welcome to come and talk to us.”
Several amendments to the changes were, however, withdrawn following a long discussion on the document after the chairman of the Constitution Committee, Conservative Councillor Mark Whittington promised to iron out problems.
Calling the document a “living” one, he said: “What we have now is a new baseline constitution.
“If, through usage, we do find there are still problems and issues with it I am more than open to looking at how we may resolve those going forward,” he said.
Whatsapp
