Sergeant who beat wife not named to protect his welfare

A POLICEMAN with a 20-year history of violence against women cannot be identified because he claimed it would harm his mental health.

The sergeant pushed one woman, who he met in 2003 and married in 2005, out of a moving car, repeatedly beat her around the head and face, punched her in the stomach causing her to vomit and tried to throw her in a bath of bleach.

The officer – with Sussex Police for 20 years – reportedly slapped a second partner across the face so hard it caused her ear to bleed. Both women were serving officers.

At a disciplinary hearing in Lewes, East Sussex, allegations of gross misconduct against him were found to be proven last week. The panel said he would have been sacked from the force if he had hadn’t already resigned.

But the panel allowed his application for anonymity. The sergeant claimed he was vulnerable because he suffered from ‘mental health’ problems but presented no medical evidence. Jayne Butler, chief executive of charity Rape Crisis, said: ‘Given the number of high profile cases of police-perpetrated violence, how is anonymity for those accused of abusive behaviour in the public interest?’