Police used private details of abuse victim for training

A DOMESTIC abuse victim whose 999 call was played at a training course without her permission has received a £75,000 payout from police.

She took legal action against Greater Manchester Police (GMP) on the grounds that she had “suffered psychiatric harm due to having very sensitive and personal material made public”.

The legal firm that represented her claimed that her payout was one of the biggest ever by a British force in a privacy case.

A spokeswoman for GMP said that the force had apologised and taken steps to make sure it could not happen again.

In 2014, the victim agreed to let GMP use anonymised details of her case in a training session for officers and other agencies who deal with domestic abuse.

But the woman later found out that her identity, her medical history and even a tape of a 999 call that she had made were used.

Her lawyer, Nick McAleenan from JMW Solicitors, said: “My client has suffered psychiatric harm due to having very sensitive and personal material made public.”

He added: “That what happened involved an officer assigned to support her, felt, she says, like a betrayal.”

The woman made her claim over the misuse of private information, the breach of confidential information and non-compliance with the Data Protection Act of 1998.

A GMP spokeswoman said: “We have apologised to the woman involved and assured her that steps have been taken to ensure that this could not happen in the future. It was quite right that we adequately compensated the woman concerned for the mistakes that were made and the effect they had on her.”

The force added: “This was an unacceptable mistake.”