'Despicable' police officers recorded woman with learning difficulties in bed while making sexual comments

Résumé détaillé

Two Northern Ireland police officers were sacked following separate but related investigations. The investigation identified 18 people in messages, videos and photographs found of Officer A's personal phones

Two police officers have been sacked over a recording in which they made sexualised comments about a vulnerable woman in bed who they had been sent to help.

The Northern Ireland officers, identified only as Officers A and B, had been sent to a woman’s home in 2021 after concerns were raised for her safety. Footage taken by Officer A showed the woman, who had learning difficulties and mental health needs, in her nightwear, with Officer B standing at the foot of the bed.

Officer A asked a “highly inappropriate question” about the woman’s sex life using a slang term. Officer B shouted the comment and invited her to repeat it. The woman held up her tablet and told the officers she was recording. Officer A said they were having “craic” and told her to “lighten up”, the report found.

When Police Ombudsman investigators showed the woman the video, she said she had been unaware Officer A was filming her and felt “disgusted”.

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Police Ombudsman Jacqui Durkin said: “Such behaviour from police officers tasked to assist a vulnerable woman at a time of distress is reprehensible. Recording a video while making sexualised comments to a vulnerable woman who was in bed in her nightwear was hugely inappropriate, a gross intrusion of her privacy and an affront to her dignity.

“They demeaned her for their own amusement. It would be hard to imagine behaviour further removed from the care and compassion required by police officers in such a situation.”

The Ombudsman’s investigation found Officer A had filmed and photographed people who had asked police for help, reported crimes, were intoxicated or were considered at risk of self-harm. He took the videos and photographs in people’s homes, hospitals and police vehicles.

Investigators identified 18 people referred to in…

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