Cops 'broke toilet while having sex in disaster zone'

Picture: David Rinehart/Pixabay

Picture: David Rinehart/Pixabay

Published Nov 22, 2019

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London - Two police officers broke a toilet cubicle while having sex on a hurricane rescue mission to the British Virgin Islands, a disciplinary hearing has heard.

The pair were investigated but escaped censure, according to Chief Superintendent Graham McLaughlin, the commander of a contingent of UK officers sent to assist with the response to 2017’s Hurricane Irma.

He cited the case as part of his defence to allegations that he sent a menacing text message to a policewoman threatening to release "graphic" details of her sex life.

McLaughlin, 53, of Derbyshire Police, said the behaviour of the officers in the toilet was an example of more serious misdemeanours committed by officers who faced investigation but were cleared.

He also cited the example of a senior Derbyshire police officer who had allegedly been investigated over claims he groped a female colleague in a police office in Derby.

Branding the case against him a "sham", McLaughlin then absented himself from the rest of the proceedings and walked out.

The hearing in Ripley was told the officer – who has since retired – had been made the subject of a misconduct meeting which resulted in a final written warning as a result of an incident which took place during the Caribbean mission.

As part of his appeal against the final warning, he sought to persuade the recipient of his menacing text to make a statement in his favour. The hearing was told he posed as a third party to send a message to the policewoman, writing: "Chief supt. Graham McLaughlin is a very good friend of mine. You chose not to help him and now he has been disciplined which has destroyed him.

"If you don’t contact him by 5th October “X” will receive a recorded delivery letter with a copy of “Y”?’s statement which graphically details you having sex with “Z”. Do the right thing. Graham is a good man, a good friend and a good boss!"

The woman officer reported receiving the text which resulted in McLaughlin’s arrest.

Caroline Sellars, a solicitor for Derbyshire Police, said the text had left the constable, who the hearing ruled could not be named, "shaken to the core".

Hearing chairman Simon Coles, the chief constable of Leicestershire Police, found that McLaughlin’s ‘very serious breach of behaviour’ amounted to gross misconduct, adding that had he still been a serving police officer he would have been dismissed from the service.

McLaughlin sent the text to the woman in September last year. He retired two months later and was cautioned this February.

Derbyshire Police said the hearing’s outcome would not affect McLaughlin’s police pension.

Daily Mail

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