Ex-PC who broke bail terms would have been sacked

A former police officer who broke his bail conditions to contact an ex-girlfriend would have been sacked if he had not already resigned, a misconduct panel has concluded.

The Hertfordshire officer, referred to only as PC X, had been told to avoid any contact with her after he was arrested as part of a stalking investigation.

Referred to as Ms A, she was a police colleague, but PC X tried to call her before saying: "Can we talk before things get even messier?"

Assistant Chief Constable Vaughan Lukey, who chaired the panel, said PC X's behaviour had "caused psychological harm" to Ms A.

The panel found that PC X had also sent misleading messages by pretending to be a colleague, and had then deleted some of them.

ACC Lukey said: "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 later accepted that his actions amounted to gross misconduct.

Hannah Hinton, representing Ms A, said he had "caused considerable emotional distress" to her 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 criminal investigation into PC X for reported stalking and coercive and controlling behaviour resulted in no further action after his arrest.

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, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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."

He resigned from the force earlier this year and did not attend the hearing.

Deputy Chief Constable Andy Mariner said: "We do not tolerate behaviour like this in Hertfordshire Constabulary.

"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."

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