Hampshire police officer who used N-word and 'bender' in messages during affair claims they were 'private'

An accelerated gross misconduct hearing today heard Hampshire police officer Sergeant X used the N-word in a message to the woman he was secretly seeing.

He also used the homophobic word ‘bender’ in a message. These were later investigated by a detective from the force’s anti-corruption unit.

Sgt X cannot be named after Hampshire chief constable Olivia Pinkney, who chaired the hearing, ruled nothing can be reported about his identity or the woman he was seeing.

Police later said there were 26 messages.

The former officer, who sent the messages in 2015 and early 2016, claimed they were ‘private’ and do not amount to gross misconduct.

Nothing further about the context of the messages, the officer, his service or how the communications came to light was revealed at the 35-minute hearing.

Sgt X did not attend but instructed his Hampshire Police Federation representative Moray Anderson to say the probe was an ‘unnecessary’ intrusion into his private life.

The officer argued it was not misconduct as the messages were exchanged in an extramarital affair and his actions are outside of the rules governing police behaviour.

But Mrs Pinkney dismissed this argument and found him guilty of gross misconduct.

She said he would have been dismissed if he had not left, and banned him from police service.

Mrs Pinkney said: ‘The nature of these messages is deeply offensive and falls way below the standard our community could rightly expect from our police service and lets down the constabulary and their colleagues.’

She said they contained both ‘racist and homophobic language’.

She said it was ‘regrettable’ the messages had only recently come to light, and Sgt X was now in a different career path having left the force.

Mr Anderson, for the officer, asked that Sgt X’s name not be included on the public College of Policing barred list.

‘It will still have the effect of barring him, without the public shame for him and his family,’ he said.

Mrs Pinkney agreed. She added: ‘This kind of hearing gives me no pleasure but is an essential part of our transparency and the standards we hold up in Hampshire Constabulary.’

She heard representations at a previous hearing, including from The News, about the officer’s anonymity.

She today said she granted this as it was a ‘question of balance’ involving the Article 8 right to respect for private and family life.

Referring to an Information Commissioner’s Office ruling about a freedom of information request, she said transparency could still be achieved by the public knowing ‘the essence’ of the misconduct instead of the full detail.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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