Officer X appears at misconduct hearing

A police constable has admitted carrying out searches of West Mercia force systems concerning his child rapist ex brother-in-law and ex-wife but claims that he did it with permission from his seniors and for legitimate policing reasons.

The press was restricted from naming the officer who appeared in uniform on the first day of a misconduct hearing in Worcester on Monday.

Officer X was able to produce as evidence to a panel of three a signed notebook with details of the last of the searches that he carried out in March 2018.

He has been accused of nine counts of using police systems improperly between May 2007 and March 2018.

The panel, headed by assistant chief constable Grant Wills, was told that an investigation into officer X was launched after the PC himself filled in a notifiable associations form in 2023.

Officer X is accused of gaining access to information on people he knew personally and was for the officer’s own personal benefit. Police are governed by strict rules on the use of systems.

Terence Rigby, counsel for West Mercia Police, said Officer X’s former brother in law from his first marriage had been given a 10 year jail sentence in 2010 for raping children. He had divorced the mother of his two children in 2004, before joining the force.

The ex brother in law had been discharged from prison in 2015. Officer X said he did not know that until the first day of the hearing on February 24.

“He accessed information contrary to force policy, regulations and data regulations,” said Mr Rigby.

“Officers are entitled to use police equipment for policing reasons, not out of curiosity or intention to provide the information to anyone else.”

The officer, giving evidence, had been in contact with his ex wife regarding their two children. He said he was using information to provide intelligence to other officers and had child safeguarding concerns.

One of his former sergeants told the panel that he could not recall the details of conversations that had taken place between 2007 and 2018.

The retired officer said: “Officers should not be looking for information on family or friends. It should be for police business.”

Colin Banham, counsel for officer X, said officers have to have a personal connection with the person being checked.

“He did not know his ex-brother in law and had not seen him for a number of years,” said Mr Banham.

The hearing was told that officer X and his ex-brother in law met by chance when the officer responded to an alleged domestic incident while he was working in Malvern, Worcestershire, in March 2018.

“G.S opened the door. I was as surprised to see him as he was to see me,” said Officer X. “It wasn’t a domestic incident, he had been watching football with two others in his flat.

“I informed my sergeant and told him about GS being my ex wife’s brother who I had not seen since 2002. I knew that he had gone to prison but I did not know what for.

“I accessed the information under the direction of the sergeant.”

The officer added: “I make notes quite a lot, I always have done. I 100 per cent would have done for the other says as far as my recollection is.”

The hearing was told that the constabulary had been unable to find the other notebooks.

Officer X told the panel of three that he only received an online data protection training course during his six weeks of initial training in 2005.

“The first time I became aware of the notifiable association form was in 2023, during refresher training,” said Officer X who had been working with a MOSOVO (Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent offenders) team in Worcestershire in 2018.

“I was told that there is a form that I need to fill in after I told them about my ex wife’s brother,” he said. “So I filled it in.”

An investigation into Officer X’s use of police systems lead to the accusations that he faces at the hearing.

The hearing has been scheduled to continue on Tuesday, February 25.