Police liaison officer jailed over affair with crash victim’s sister

A FORMER police constable has been jailed for misconduct after he had an affair with the 21-year-old sister of a man killed in a road accident.

Ian Mynott was serving with Kent Police when he was assigned the family liaison officer.

A court heard that within a month of meeting, the married 41-year-old was having sex with the young woman – sneaking her into his home while his wife was out, driving to remote locations or using police accommodation.

Her family became suspicious and raised their concerns about his professional conduct.

However, the matter was not officially reported until 2018, about 15 years after the relationship had ended.

Mynott, now 64 and living in Chester, was arrested and pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office.

Jailing him for 21 months on Friday,

Judge Oliver Saxby KC said the only appropriate sentence was immediate custody so as to “punish him, deter others and reassure the public”.

He told Mynott that having been tasked with providing the family “detached, dependable and professional” assistance, he had “targeted and effectively groomed” the woman.

“You, a 41-year-old married police officer of some years’ experience, entered into a sexual relationship with someone whose life had been turned upside down,” said Judge Saxby.

“She was still young. She was in the foothills of profound grief. She was emotionally raw and her thinking was disordered. She was therefore extremely vulnerable and you, a police officer with access to her physically and emotionally, were in a position of real trust which you grossly abused.

“As she eloquently puts it (in her victim personal statement) ‘my loss was exploited by the very system that was there to protect me’.

“It was consensual, but it is consent which needs to be seen in terms of your respective ages and maturity, her vulnerability and your position of trust.”

Mynott, whose 30-year career was said to have been otherwise exemplary, was also ordered to pay his former lover £1,000 compensation within six months.

Prosecutor Ben Wild told Maidstone Crown Court, Kent, the family had “complete trust” in Mynott when they met him 30 minutes after they had been told the news of a fatality. However, he soon began to show the woman what she described as “special attention”.

‘She was still young and in the foothills of profound grief. She was therefore extremely vulnerable’