A British police officer has been formally sacked after taking photos at a murder scene and photographing vulnerable people while on duty.
Merseyside Police characterized PC Ryan Connolly’s actions as “deplorable” after a gross misconduct hearing revealed he had kept racist and homophobic photos on his phone between 2015 and 2018. He snapped images of himself after being deployed to monitor a cordon at a spot where a youngster was stabbed to death in 2018, according to The Guardian.
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According to the newspaper, Connolly had also taken images of males arrested by mental health authorities while they were in hospital in 2016 and 2017 and shared them over WhatsApp, according to the newspaper, and had outrageously racist photos and graphics, one of which depicted Muslim people and another of a Ku Klux Klan member. He also photographed and uploaded a photo of someone who had slit their wrists.
His case comes following the sentencing of Metropolitan Police officers Pc Deniz Jaffer and Pc Jamie Lewis, who were jailed earlier this month after they took photos of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, and shared them on WhatsApp. Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley confirmed Connolly had been formally dismissed from his post, following a four-day hearing earlier this year.
He said: “I am appalled by Connolly’s actions. They are beyond comprehension and are not in keeping with the high standards and values that we expect here at Merseyside Police.” Our officers carry out exceptionally brave, selfless acts every single day, protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities, yet here we see the despicable acts of a very selfish individual who has no place in our police service.
An investigation by our Anti-Corruption Unit uncovered the fact that Connolly had been using his own phone to take photographs of vulnerable people whilst on duty, and that the phone also contained appalling homophobic, racist, and offensive images. ” It was also revealed that Connolly was an associate of a known criminal and had not declared this association.
His actions are an insult to the uniform and the police service, which consistently strives to protect our communities and provide a professional and inclusive service to the people of Merseyside.
“The behavior of this officer is deplorable and serves to undermine the public’s confidence and trust in the police.”
“We are quite clear: if any officer is found to be behaving in a way that does not meet our high standards, we will take swift and robust action.”
Outcomes of police misconduct hearings are usually published on the internet, but a spokesman for the force said the findings only appeared on the website for a limited time period and the outcome of Connolly’s case was no longer online.
A force spokesman said Connolly was convicted of three offenses of possession of extreme material in November and is due to be sentenced on January 10, 2019.
