08 April 2024 , 08:45
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A police officer shared a video with colleagues of himself having sex at a work Christmas party in the toilets of the National Exhibition Centre outside Birmingham.
PC Daryl Watson recorded the sex session with an “unknown female” in December 2022. He sent the clip to a colleague and showed it to others on his phone, a misconduct hearing heard. Watson was off-duty at the time but Chief Constable Craig Guildford said his conduct seriously undermined public trust in the police. He labelled his actions as 'pathetic bragging behaviour'.
The 29-year-old, who had been with the force for six years, admitted the act and resigned after complaints were made to his seniors. He was found to have committed gross misconduct following a hearing last week and the chief constable said he would have been dismissed had he not resigned, BirminghamLive reported.
Mr Guildford wrote in his findings: “The former officer's deliberate actions whilst off-duty patently disregarded the law. He is individually culpable for his actions.
The facts demonstrate the gain was to his own self in terms of pursuing his own sexual interests with a consenting adult in a toilet and then bragging about them by sending a recording to his colleague. Whilst I find on the balance of probability she was an active participant in the encounter, I suspect she would unlikely have consented to the recorded sexual encounter being shared.
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“This is a criminal offence which brings shame upon policing and undermines lots of hard work the service is doing. Had he still been serving he would have been dismissed as there is no place in policing for those who choose to conduct themselves in such a manner."
Mr Watson was given ten workdays from April 3 to appeal the decision.