Police chief and sergeant probed over ‘lay-by trysts’
A POLICE chief and a woman sergeant accused of meeting up for sex in a patrol car while they were meant to be on duty are to face charges of gross misconduct.
Chief Inspector Rob Leet, 44, and Sergeant Sarah Porter, 38 – who were both married with children – were suspended over claims they conducted an 18-month affair.
The officers were said to have met up while on duty and had sex in a patrol car while pulled up in a lay-by. They were also accused of making up fictitious appointments so they could meet in police stations for trysts.
On one occasion Sergeant Porter, a traffic officer, is alleged to have been uncontactable when she should have been available to go to a fatal car crash in East Sussex.
If a disciplinary hearing finds them guilty of gross misconduct then both officers, who have more than 35 years’ service between them, could be sacked.
A police source said of the pair: ‘They would co-ordinate their days carefully to make an accidental meeting while on duty a likelihood.’ They also reported claims that ‘they would meet up in lay-bys to have sex in a police car, as well as hooking up at several police stations across the Sussex division’.
Although they did not directly work together, Sergeant Porter was often out on the road because of her traffic duties while Chief Inspector Leet travelled from station to station as part of his role as an area commander. The father of four has been suspended
‘An accidental meeting’
from his £60,000-a-year job since the scandal broke in 2017 while Sergeant Porter, who has a daughter aged ten, has returned to duties.
She has left her husband Nick, 46, a former police officer, and they are understood to be divorcing.
Chief Inspector Leet is also accused of meeting in late 2014 and early 2016 with another woman, who he knew to be a former victim of domestic violence, for sex while he was on duty. At the time he furiously denied conducting a secret relationship.