PC avoids sack after assault on female colleague
A Maidstone police officer who inappropriately touched a colleague and lifted up her skirt during a boozy night out has been given a final warning.
PC John Hetterley was suspended for six months after complaints were made about his behaviour following the works do.
A two-day misconduct hearing at Kent Police HQ heard the group were having a meal at an Indian restaurant where PC Hetterley was “substantially under the influence of alcohol”, having drunk around 10 pints of lager.
He had been using “extreme profanities” in the earshot of young children, the panel heard, despite being told to stop by his fellow workers.
The group moved on to a nightclub, where PC Hetterley pinched the bottom of a female co-worker, who cannot be named.
She swore at him, but he later lifted up her skirt, which she said humiliated her.
PC Hetterley, who has been with Kent Police for six years, did not remember his behaviour because he was so intoxicated, but said he must have been childishly trying to get the woman’s attention.
The panel heard the pair were close friends who were flirtatious, and PC Hetterley was given reason to believe a relationship might blossom.
But the woman said the contact was unwanted and left her angry, embarrassed and demeaned, although she did not want him to be prosecuted.
The three-strong disciplinary panel heard character references from two inspectors and fellow officers, one of which described PC Hetterley as an “outstanding officer,” who wanted nothing more to get back to work.
But Simon Walsh, prosecuting, said the officer’s behaviour was “very worrying”, and he had potentially committed a number of criminal offences.
Mr Walsh added: “Either because he was so drunk he was unable to recognise a woman saying ‘no’ or he chose to take no notice, both are appalling ways for an officer to behave in public.”
PC Hetterley was also accused of having said he was going to rape someone that night, but the panel cleared him of that allegation, something Mark Seymour, defending, dismissed as “unreliable hearsay”.
The panel, led by lawyer Nicola Talbot Hadley, found PC Hetterley’s behaviour amounted to misconduct and gave the officer a final warning, which will stay on his file for 18 months.
She said: “The public are entitled to expect certain standards of police officers and this behaviour fell far short of that.”