Knowle West<\/a>, sent the woman, Ms A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sexually explicit texts, photos and videos on SnapChat, including sex acts, the hearing was told on Tuesday, February 3.<\/p>\nShe told him she did not want to receive those because she was married and not interested.<\/p>\n
But the pair continued to exchange more than 1,100 messages over just 10 days in April 2024 until her husband found out and complained to the constabulary.<\/p>\n
Avon & Somerset Police misconduct panel chairman Craig Holden ruled that it was \u201cclearly a mutual, private and adult exchange\u201d.<\/p>\n
He rejected an argument by barrister Mark Ley-Morgan, representing the force, that PC Thompson had initiated unsolicited communication with Ms A or that she was a stranger to him.<\/p>\n
Mr Holden said: \u201cRough sex appears to be mutually in play.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did know her, albeit in an online context. It was consensual.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Ley-Morgan told the hearing at police headquarters in Portishead: \u201cWhile we accept the messaging was consensual, that messaging has to be seen in the context of what has been happening nationally in relation to the police service and violent, misogynistic behaviour by male police officers to female members of the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is undoubtedly concern from the public about the attitudes of some male officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other significant factor is he identified himself as a police officer \u2013 he didn\u2019t need to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have references to choking during sex and beating.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut not just beating \u2013 beating with a police baton.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said PC Thompson called the woman a \u2018slut\u2019<\/p>\n
Mr Ley-Morgan said: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if the messages were consensual \u2013 the messages, at least, give the impression the officer has a worrying or misogynistic attitude towards women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not simply exchanging some fruity messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the officer conceded during interview, the messages made him look like a \u2018heinous thug\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police Federation rep Det Sgt Andy Coggins, representing PC Thompson, who did not attend the hearing, said the total of 1,134 SnapChat two-way exchanges between the pair over such a short period showed the communication was mutual.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis was private, mutual sexting while off-duty and was not coercive or abusive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe liaison was already mutual when he said he was a police officer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Det Sgt Coggins said it only came to light when Ms A\u2019s husband found the messages and complained to Avon & Somerset Police, and that the woman had not complained or stopped messaging PC Thompson during the previous nine days.<\/p>\n
Mr Holden found that the breach of the professional standards in terms of authority, respect and courtesy had not been proven but that discreditable conduct was proven.<\/p>\n
Action can be taken against former police officers who are found to have committed gross misconduct, usually by barring them from working in policing or law enforcement again and deciding that they would have been sacked without notice had they not already resigned, but no sanctions are available for findings of misconduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Officer admitted messages made him look like a ‘heinous thug’ File image of SnapChat app on mobile phone(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[9312,381,748,188,393,4884,16656,14345,285,11945,16497,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-740346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-avon-and-somerset-constabulary","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-knowle","15":"tag-knowle-west","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-portishead","18":"tag-snapchat","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116008826215479885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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