Complaint regarding the conduct of an officer - Sussex Police, February 2019
On 1 February 2019, a member of the public contacted Sussex Police Professional Standards Department (PSD) to make a complaint. The complainant raised concerns about the conduct of a serving Sussex Police officer.
The complainant had been the victim of a serious sexual offence and the officer had assisted in the investigation, which was still ongoing. The officer had had contact with the complainant, including going to their home.
On 31 January 2019, the complainant logged on to an online dating application and sent a message to a profile they did not recognise. While exchanging text messages with the unknown profile, the complainant came to believe they were actually communicating with the Sussex Police officer assisting with the ongoing sexual offence investigation. The complainant stated this suspicion was confirmed through further messages.
The complainant stated sexual messages and images were exchanged with the officer and the message exchange ended with an agreement to engage in sexual activity at the complainant’s home the next day. This meeting did not happen.
Sussex Police PSD began to investigate the officer’s conduct before referring the matter to us on 4 February 2019.
The complainant provided a video-recorded interview to Sussex Police and forensic analysis of their phone was completed. The officer concerned was arrested and interviewed on suspicion of misconduct in public office and improper use of police powers and privileges.
Forensic analysis of the officer’s mobile phone confirmed the dating application was installed. No messages between the complainant and the officer were recovered. However, evidence of a large message exchange with another user on the dating application was identified. This confirmed the officer’s mobile phone had been used to send messages to another application user on 31 January 2019. The content of the messages could not be viewed, indicating they may have been deleted.
The officer admitted contact with the complainant via the dating application and accepted they knew this contact was inappropriate. The officer also accepted they had exchanged sexual messages and images with the complainant. However, they denied intending to meet the complainant to engage in sexual activity.
Based on the evidence available, we were of the opinion that the officer may have a case to answer for gross misconduct. We completed our investigation in May 2019.
After reviewing our report, Sussex Police agreed.
The officer attended a hearing in summer 2019, where gross misconduct was proven, the sanction being instant dismissal. As the officer had already been dismissed from the force for another, unrelated case, no further action was taken. The officer was placed on the barred list of former officers who cannot work for the police service in the future.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) determined there was insufficient evidence to charge the officer for misconduct in public office and improper use of police powers and privileges. The complainant exercised their right to a review of the CPS decision, however, this did not result in the CPS changing their decision.