{"id":218664,"date":"2025-12-06T14:31:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T14:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/218664\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T14:31:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T14:31:50","slug":"pc-pamela-pritchard-sacked-for-groping-colleagues-at-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/218664\/","title":{"rendered":"PC Pamela Pritchard sacked for groping colleagues at party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764852249_415_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/d0f5b4c0-d114-11f0-ab13-adb9c125df74.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Facebook A woman smiles at the camera. It is a selfie and she has long blonde hair and blue eyes.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Facebook<\/p>\n<p>PC Pamela Pritchard previously told the hearing she was &#8220;mortified&#8221; at seeing footage of herself on CCTV<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A female police officer who groped two colleagues at a drunken party has been sacked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">PC Pamela Pritchard, 29, thrust her hand into a male colleague&#8217;s groin twice and later sat on his knee and kissed him, after drinking at a leaving do at Caernarfon Rugby Club, Gwynedd, in March 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The North Wales Police officer also grabbed a female colleague&#8217;s breasts after &#8220;twerking&#8221; on the dance floor, and later tried to kiss a senior colleague.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The panel at a misconduct hearing in Colwyn Bay, Conwy, found all the allegations against her were proven and that she had breached the force&#8217;s standards of behaviour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">PC Pritchard, who joined North Wales Police as a trainee in 2023, admitted her drunken behaviour was inappropriate, but denied it was gross misconduct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She previously told the hearing she was <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cj4q50g5d52o\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#8220;mortified&#8221; at seeing footage of herself on CCTV<\/a>, and remembered little of what happened at the party on 29 March 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The four-day hearing was told PC Pritchard was one of a large number of police officers who went to the colleague&#8217;s leaving party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Among them was PC Pritchard and another male officer, identified to the hearing as &#8220;Police Constable B&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">PC B <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ckglx8xxzy7o\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told the hearing on Monday<\/a> he and another female colleague were at the bar with PC Pritchard when &#8220;out of the blue, PC Pritchard grabbed me below the belt and put her hand on my genitals outside my clothing&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said: &#8220;To no extent was it appropriate \u2013 I felt kind of humiliated at that point.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He added that she did the same thing again later when a group of officers went outside to the smoking area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;She grabbed my genitals outside my clothes and I distinctly remember her squeezing them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764852249_415_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bdb1a620-d115-11f0-ab13-adb9c125df74.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Facebook A woman with sunglasses on and long blonde hair looks at the camera. She has a burnt orange dress on and holds up a glass of white wine. It is a head and shoulders shot.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Facebook<\/p>\n<p>PC Pritchard admitted her drunken behaviour was inappropriate, but denied it was gross misconduct<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">At about 22:00 BST, PC Pritchard came over to PC B again and sat on his knee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I remember her putting her hand around my neck and kissing me on the lips,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;It was not appropriate \u2013 this was in public.  Her behaviour was becoming more and more unacceptable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The hearing was shown CCTV from the rugby club showing PC Pritchard &#8220;twerking&#8221; on the dance floor in a series of suggestive dance moves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A female police officer, identified to the hearing only as &#8220;Police Constable A,&#8221; said: &#8220;PC Pritchard came up from behind me, put both her arms around my neck, then put them under my armpits and grabbed my breasts and squeezed them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">PC Pritchard apologised to PC A when giving evidence to the hearing earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She said: &#8220;My behaviour that evening was inappropriate I&#8217;ve never acted like that before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I&#8217;m absolutely mortified at what&#8217;s happened &#8211; I don&#8217;t recognise the person I see on that CCTV &#8211; all I can do is apologise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She broke down in tears as she said: &#8220;I feel I&#8217;ve let down the police, I&#8217;ve let down myself and I&#8217;ve let down my family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She said she has had &#8220;panic and nightmares&#8221; and felt &#8220;people thought I was a sexual predator&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The panel chair, Assistant Chief Constable Chris Allsop, said on Thursday that &#8220;all the allegations against PC Pritchard have been found proven&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Overall, the panel finds that the breaches of standards are of medium to high seriousness which could justify dismissal as gross misconduct,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Barrister Fiona Clancy, representing PC Pritchard, had argued she should be allowed to keep her job in the police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;She accepts her behaviour was unacceptable.  This was a short-lived episode, of brief duration, and there is no risk of it happening again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;PC Pritchard has been doing voluntary work while she has been waiting for this hearing, and has kept her fitness levels up \u2013 there is a genuine motivation to keep serving the community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">North Wales Police&#8217;s Deputy Chief Constable Nigel Harrison said PC Pritchard&#8217;s behaviour &#8220;fell far below the standard we expect of our police officers&#8221;.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;There is no issue with officers when off duty relaxing and enjoying themselves but her behaviour that night was simply not acceptable by anyone&#8217;s standards,&#8221; he said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;She has rightly been dismissed, bringing to an end her very short career with us and preventing her from serving with any other UK force.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook PC Pamela Pritchard previously told the hearing she was &#8220;mortified&#8221; at seeing footage of herself on CCTV&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-218664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115673114356672813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}