Detective who sold sex sacked for misconduct

AN ex-detective who sold sexual services to strangers has been found guilty of gross misconduct after a disciplinary panel said his actions were “akin to a criminal offence”.

Former Detective Constable Nicholas Taylor and his partner advertised online to meet men for sex at their home in return for payment, a West Midlands Police misconduct hearing was told.

The officer’s off-duty activities were exposed in November 2020 by a newspaper, which reported that he was offering an hourly rate of £150 via an adult website.

At the time DC Taylor, who worked in CID at Bloxwich, Walsall, told the newspaper his clients at his property in Shropshire had ranged in age from 21 to 70.

The force’s barrister John Goss said the matter had not been investigated as “keeping or assisting in the management of a brothel” as it would not have been proportionate.

Alleging Taylor had brought the police service into disrepute and misconducted himself by failing to declare a business interest, Mr Goss told the hearing in Birmingham: “Where there is more than one person selling sexual services from a premises it’s a matter of fact... that those premises are likely to be a brothel.”

Taylor, who is believed to be aged in his early 40s, did not attend his disciplinary hearing but submitted a document describing the allegations as “part of his private life”.

He also claimed what he had done was not a business interest.

The hearing was told Taylor, who had 19 years of police service, was “already in the last chance saloon” because he had previously received a final written warning for neglect of duties, relating to a witness intimidation case in which statements were shredded rather than uploaded to a police system.

Misconduct panel chairman Harry Ireland was told Taylor had already submitted his resignation, with it becoming effective a day before the hearing. Finding Taylor guilty of gross misconduct, Mr Ireland said: “This was a business and therefore fell into the West Midlands Police business interest policy.

West Midlands Police said DC Taylor will now be placed on a barred list, preventing him from working in policing.