Cumbria Police officers brought before misconduct hearings in 2023
Running an illicit online account, having an inappropriate relationship with a woman and fighting with a member of the public were among the reasons why officers were sanctioned. After a busy year for such hearings, Cumbria Police said it showed they treated misconduct claims with the ‘utmost seriousness and investigated thoroughly and diligently’. Among them was n police officer who ran a Twitter account selling explicit photos and videos.
Michael Harker accepted the allegation that he ran an account on the social media platform now known as X while serving as a constable in Cumbria Police. The former officer, who resigned from the force, ran the illicit account under a pseudonym, linking a payment app to enable him to sell explicit material involving a man on the platform. He was barred from the profession.
An officer who aimed a kick at a man during a melee while off duty would have been dismissed without notice. Former police constable Rashid Said was brought before a misconduct hearing following the incident, which happened at a celebration party on May 7, the weekend of King Charles III’s coronation. The tribunal heard that CCTV showed the police officer falling over after being hit by the other man.
The officer then moved towards the man, grappling with him, and leaving them both on the floor, according to the hearing papers. A former Cumbria Constabulary officer who lied to his sergeant about visiting a woman he had formed an inappropriate relationship with was also barred from working in policing. PC David Henley’s visited the woman’s residence several times while on duty.
These visits were deemed to serve no policing purpose. A police sergeant in the county was sacked after becoming involved in the investigation of an assault on a teenager he knew. Sergeant Graham Boyd was dismissed for directing a police investigation on April 21 2023 while he had personal involvement in it.
He was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to confidentiality, orders and instructions, authority respect and courtesy and honesty and integrity. Cumbria Police inspector Simon Gee was sacked from the force after he was ruled to have made a series of sexualised comments to female police officers on his team. A misconduct hearing was told the inspector made several comments and touched a colleague’s leg on a night out in Lancaster in September.
A constable was dismissed after it was found she engaged in gross misconduct by recording false information and lying. Amelia Porteous faced an accelerated misconduct hearing on May 5 at Cumbria Police HQ in Penrith where she was found to have breached standards of honesty and integrity and acted in a manner amounting to discreditable conduct. A ‘predatory’ Cumbria police officer was sacked after he sent sexual messages to an ‘extremely vulnerable’ woman.
PC Christopher Foster was brought before a misconduct hearing after he was accused of three charges, including sending the messages to a woman identified only as Ms A. A Cumbria Police spokesman said: “We expect the highest standards from all of our officers and staff and while the overwhelming majority of our workforce acts with professionalism, integrity and honesty, both in their working and private life, we will take proactive steps if we suspect those standards are not being met. “We hope that the Misconduct Proceeding process will demonstrate to the public that all allegations against police officers and staff are treated with the utmost seriousness and investigated thoroughly and diligently.
“These proceedings may be accelerated if it is in the public interest for the officer concerned to cease to be a member of the police force without delay, and there is incontrovertible evidence available.
“A number of hearings within the last year have been accelerated in this way.”