PC in doorstep confrontation over love affair
A POLICE officer faces the sack after confronting a man who began an affair with his wife, a misconduct hearing has been told.
Robert Billings, a part-time firefighter, began a romance with Kath Parnell after he carried out “odd jobs” around their family home.
But her husband, PC Christopher Parnell, found out after gossip about the affair spread around their home town and he confronted Mr Billings on the doorstep of the latter’s home.
PC Parnell, who is stationed at Harrogate Police Station, North Yorks, is accused of breaching standards of professional behaviour and conduct over his actions.
At a misconduct hearing at North Yorkshire Police headquarters in Northallerton, a three-person panel chaired by Tom Mitchell heard the affair began last July.
Mr Billings had carried out odd jobs at their family home in Boroughbridge and had known the family for 12 years when PC Parnell’s wife confided in a friend at her local gym about the affair. It soon became local knowledge.
Mr Billings left PC Parnell a voicemail saying he was sorry and asked to speak privately with him. The following day PC Parnell turned up on his doorstep, “anxious” and “angry”.
Mr Billings told the panel PC Parnell demanded to come into his home, reassuring him that he didn’t want to “jeopardise” his job in the police. “I still didn’t like his mannerisms towards me. They were very aggressive and abrupt,” Mr Billings said.
The hearing continues.