Former cop kept uniform and items after resigning from the force
Ex-police officer’s behaviour was described as ‘extremely odd’
AFORMER Greater Manchester Police officer’s behaviour has been described as ‘extremely odd’ after she kept her uniform and some equipment when she resigned from the force.
Abigail Barlow, from Rochdale, worked for the force for four and a half years before leaving in January 2023.
She resigned three days after being sentenced over ‘repeated’ domestic abuse against her partner.
The ‘regular and repeated’ abuse towards her partner had a ‘serious psychological impact’ on them, a disciplinary hearing was told.
She pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour at Mold Magistrates’ Court in December 2022 and on January 17, 2023, was handed 26 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years as well as unpaid work and rehabilitation activities.
She was then banned from the profession at a GMP misconduct hearing last July, with Chief Constable Stephen Watson describing her actions ‘incompatible with the role of police officer’.
He said she would have been dismissed from the force had she not already quit.
He described her ‘cruel, coercive and violent behaviour’ as ‘more than a simple lapse of judgment’.
Now, the 33-year-old has appeared at another court after officers found police uniform and equipment at her home after she resigned.
The offences came to light after an alleged incident involving a different partner.
Andrew Page, prosecuting, told Liverpool Magistrates Court that police were called to her home in April last year to investigate a complaint by her partner.
No prosecution followed from that, but while there officers searched her home.
They found a PAVA spray - which is similar to pepper spray - and a police retractable baton.
In her wardrobe, they found a police high visibility TAC Vest with epaulettes and a police utility belt.
Mr Page said that on leaving GMP she should have handed back the uniform, which would have been destroyed, and also returned the equipment.
Barlow commented that she knew she should have handed the PAVA spray back.
She denied that she had any plans to impersonate a police officer using the items and uniform.
Her solicitor Darren Jones said that she had been given a leaflet on leaving the force and confirmed that she had no intention of going out and impersonating a police officer.
He said that she had been doing well under the terms of the suspended sentence imposed for her
last offence.
Sentencing, District Judge Wendy Lloyd told Barlow: “I accept you did not return those items, rather than stealing them by stealth.”
But she continued: “As a police officer there is a high degree of trust, not just in your ability to conduct yourself properly, but because you are, unlike members of the public, allowed to have access to weapons, batons and CG gas.
“The nature of those items being in your home
causes me great concern.
“They may not be used but the fact you had them is in itself a terrible worry to members of the public.”
The judge added: “Knowing the police were interested in you and brought before the courts why you would not have come forward and said ‘I still have all my police gear which I know I shouldn’t have’ seems extremely odd behaviour.”
She added: “The public expect weapons and paraphernalia such as those will be safely kept in a
secure regime, not casually kept in someone’s home.”
Barlow, of Clifton Street, Milnrow, Rochdale, pleaded guilty to three offences of theft by employee.
She was fined £100 for being in breach of the suspended sentence and ordered to £224 court costs.
A 12-month community order was imposed and she was also ordered to carry out 20 rehabilitation activity days and 150 hours unpaid work.
‘Knowing the police were interested in you and brought before the courts why you would not have come forward and said ‘I still have all my police gear which I know I shouldn’t have’ seems extremely odd behaviour. The public expect weapons and paraphernalia such as those will be safely kept in a secure regime, not casually kept in someone’s home’ District Judge Wendy Lloyd