Cleveland Police officer resigns after sending intimate photo of colleague to a friend

A former Cleveland Police officer sent an intimate photo of a junior colleague to his friend in order to 'show off' about their sexual relationship, a misconduct hearing has heard.

The 38-year-old officer known as PC A also made disrespectful and derogatory comments about the 20-year-old female student officer known as PC X, when he shared a photo of her in a state of undress.

Stephen Morley, prosecuting, said: "One of the concerns that arises is the imbalance of power between an older gentleman and experienced police officer in a position of rank, and a young female student officer who had been training for about 17 months.

"The poor young lady, that was entering into this sexual relationship with a supervisor, had her trust betrayed."

He told the panel PC A and PC X had exchanged messages and had sexual relations on just one occasion at her home.

Mr Morley said: "PC A sent a sexual image of the female officer to another man who was not a police officer, we assume he was a friend."

He said the intimate photo of PC X showed her in a state of undress, exposing parts of her body and was sent to another man without her knowledge.

The panel heard PC A sent messages to his friend which read, "Probationers are class, "She's on my shift," and "Game as f***".

Mr Morley said PC X sent the photo to PC A and was very upset to find he had sent it on.

PC A, resigned from the force ahead of a disciplinary hearing in Hartlepool on Monday 4 April.

The former officer had also been found to be in breach of confidentiality in relation to an earlier incident in 2020.

In early 2020, PC A had taken a photo of a confidential briefing sheet, featuring a picture of a murder suspect, and sent it to his wife "for personal reasons, because they had been discussing the case".

He was later fined £400 at a magistrates' court after pleading guilty to a Data Protection Act offence.

Mr Morley said: "His wife is not a police officer, he had sent it to her for personal reasons because him and his wife had been discussing the murder."

Messages were also found on PC A’s phone in which he and his wife were "talking about what had happened, in particular about injuries and how they had been caused".

Mr Morley said: "It was an inappropriate conversation to be having with his wife about a confidential murder investigation and of course it was inappropriate to have sent an image to his wife about an ongoing investigation."

Mr Morley added he had breached the trust of Cleveland Police and of the public.

The panel found that PC A would have been dismissed from the force for both incidents had he not resigned.