11 former and current Gwent Police officers under investigation by IOPC
Eleven serving and former Gwent Police officers are under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
The culture at the police force has been under question after offensive messages were found on the phone of deceased former officer Ricky Jones.
Gross misconduct notices have been served against two current and two former officers at Gwent Police, with a misconduct notice against another serving officer. All relate to messages discovered on the phone of Ricky Jones, who died by suicide in January 2020.
The notices tell officers their conduct is under investigation but do not mean any disciplinary charges will necessarily follow.
Another four officers - three current and one former - have been handed misconduct notices after they allegedly failed to challenge or report inappropriate messages sent by colleagues on a WhatsApp group they were part of.
Two other serving officers from Gwent Police are under criminal investigation for allegedly providing unauthorised police information to Ricky Jones after he left the force. They have also been served with gross misconduct notices but are not being investigated over offensive messages.
Officers under investigation range from police constable to investigating ranks.
'Enquiries will take some time'
IOPC Director David Ford said: “Our investigation is examining the exchange of messages, unauthorised sharing of police information, and whether any serving officers failed to challenge or report the conduct of their colleagues."
He added: “We are also investigating when Gwent Police became aware of Ricky Jones’ family’s concerns about the messages and what steps the force took to explore them.
“We will progress the investigation as swiftly as possible, but given the number of officers and the non-recent nature of the alleged conduct, enquiries will take some time.”
A separate Wiltshire Police investigation is also ongoing into a series of complaints from the family of Ricky Jones.
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