AFTER the tragic rape and murder of Sarah Everard by then Met Police officer, Wayne Couzens, police forces across the country are finding themselves under increased scrutiny.
One of the fundamental principles of justice in this country is that it must be seen to be done, with those who abuse their position expected to face the consequences of doing so.
With that in mind, here are the names of the police officers from Berkshire who have been dismissed by the force over since 2018 for sexual or relationship misconduct.
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Alan Nisbet
The ‘strange’ and creepy’ retired police officer acted like a ‘predator’ for 10 years towards younger female colleagues.
Alan Nisbet made suggestive ‘jokes’, slapped a police officer on the bum in a car park and commented ‘weird things’ on Facebook updates.
In one bizarre incident, he told a police officer ‘looks like I’ve made you wet’ when it was raining at a 999 emergency car crash.
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At a misconduct hearing in June 2020, the heads of Thames Valley Police heard evidence from four officers who had been left ‘gobsmacked’ and upset by his behaviour.
Between October 2014 and January 2019 Mr Nisbet also made unsolicited advances at officer D, inviting her for coffee, offering her lifts even though they didn’t work together or live near each other, and 'inappropriately' commenting on her Facebook pictures and statuses.
She said it was ‘strange and creepy’ for somebody much older than her to be inviting her out and said that she dreaded going into the office knowing it could just be the two of them alone.
The panel decided that if the public had known about what he had done, their confidence in the police force would have been ‘discredited’.
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They also concluded that his actions with the four officers were ‘planned and targeted’, ‘predatory in nature’ and ‘abusive of young inexperienced officers’.
He was put on the police barred list, and despite retiring last year, will never be allowed to work for any police force again.
Unnamed police officer
A Maidenhead Advertiser report from January of this year revealed the dismissal of a local police officer for lying about their relationship.
The report read: “A police officer who lied about being in a relationship with a family member of someone he had investigated has been dismissed.
“An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found that he failed to inform his senior officers about the relationship, and then lied about how it had started.
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“The officer had also given a dishonest account to his senior officer, claiming he met her at a coffee shop, and failed to disclose a change to his relationship circumstances to the vetting department.”
Richard Wightman
In January 2020, BerkshireLive reported on the sacking of Maidenhead police officer Richard Wightman after he ‘made physical contact of a sexual nature’ towards a colleague.
The report read: “It had been alleged that PC Richard Wightman had used inappropriate language and physical contact of a sexual nature, causing another officer to raise the issue.
“A public misconduct hearing concluded that PC Wightman, previously based at Maidenhead, had breached Standards of Professional Behaviour in relation to Discreditable Conduct, and Authority Respect and Courtesy.
“The hearing was told that PC Wightman behaved in an inappropriate manner towards another Thames Valley Police officer, causing her to feel uncomfortable and disturbed, on July 8, 2019.
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Clinton Geldard
A BBC news report from January 2019 exposed Reading-based Geldard’s firing after he sexually abused two of his colleagues.
The report read: “A Thames Valley Police hearing was told Reading-based PC Clinton Geldard carried out three sexual assaults in April and May [2018].
“On one occasion he grabbed the bottom of a junior female officer he was mentoring, the panel heard.
“[A] hearing [heard] Geldard's behaviour made his colleagues feel "embarrassed and uncomfortable" and was particularly unacceptable because he was a police officer.”
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