Police officer sacked over lewd video in station toilet
APOLICE officer has been dismissed after a misconduct hearing found he created and sent a woman videos of himself masturbating while on duty.
The woman was a potential witness in a case he was investigating.
There were nine breaches of gross misconduct made against PC Christopher Leach of South Wales Police, five of which were found proven.
A panel made the decision to dismiss PC Leach without notice at the outcome of a misconduct hearing at Cardiff County Hall yesterday.
After outlining the purpose of the misconduct hearing, which is to maintain public confidence in and the reputation of the police force, uphold high standards in policing and deter misconduct and protect the public, the panel concluded: “The only appropriate and proportionate outcome is that of his dismissal from the force without notice.”
PC Leach was found proven to have created and sent an explicit video of himself while on duty to a woman with whom he was in an “improper sexual relationship” on two separate occasions on June 7 and June 19, 2017.
PC Leach, who has worked for the force for five years, told the hearing that he filmed himself masturbating in the toilets of Cathays police station but claimed he was not on duty.
The misconduct hearing at Cardiff County Hall also found that PC Leach sent an explicit video of himself while on duty on a third occasion, June 8 2017, but it was not proven the video was created while he was on duty.
The panel also found proven two breaches of “honesty and integrity” by seeking to mislead his supervisor by failing to disclose the full extent of contact between himself and the woman.
Two allegations of PC Leach having sex with the woman while on duty and an allegation of conducting an unlawful computer check on the woman for no policing purpose were found not proven.
It was also found not proven that the woman was vulnerable.
PC Leach met the 35-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, during the course of his duty.
Jonathan
Walters, counsel for
South Wales Police, told the hearing last Thursday that the woman was considered a potential witness in a case.
After speaking to the woman at her place of work, PC Leach went to her home address to ask her to sign a witness statement that she had provided and gave her his personal phone number.
PC Leach described their initial connection as a friendship, but he and the woman went on to begin a sexual relationship in October 2016.
The hearing was told that their relationship ended in February 2017 before they started seeing each other again in June 2017 when PC Leach sent the explicit videos.
PC Leach admitted filming two videos in the toilets of the station while in his police uniform, saying it gave him a “thrill”, and admitted sending them to the woman while on duty, but denied filming them while he was working.
PC Leach believed the videos were deleted after his relationship with the woman ended.