Former Avon & Somerset Detective Chief Inspector cleared of misconduct
A former senior Avon & Somerset police officer burst into tears as he was cleared of misconduct and unwanted sexual behaviour towards a junior colleague about half his age.
A former senior Avon & Somerset police officer burst into tears as he was cleared of misconduct and unwanted sexual behaviour towards a junior colleague about half his age.
Detective Inspector Andrew Greaves, 44, who has since retired from policing, allegedly accessed confidential information on the force database to find her name and details for personal reasons and messaged her minutes later.
During the two-day hearing at constabulary headquarters in Portishead, the panel was told his actions made the young PC feel ‘awkward and extremely uncomfortable’.
But it ruled that the only breach of the standards of professional behaviour was for using his work laptop to write a fiction book and that this did not amount to misconduct, let alone gross misconduct which he was accused of.
The panel said this could have been dealt with at the time by his managers rather than a full-on misconduct internal investigation by Avon & Somerset’s police standards department.
It rejected an argument from the force’s barrister Mark Ley-Morgan, who had branded DI Greaves a ‘serial chaser of very young women’, that the book was about a ‘young girl’ and contained sexual references, and instead agreed with the ex-detective that the character in question was in fact in her 20s and that there were ‘no references to sexual abuse or anything overly sexual in nature’.
Announcing the decision on Tuesday, June 16, panel chair Craig Holden said: “The only breach found was discreditable conduct in relation to the use of the laptop to write a book but this was not sufficient to reach a finding of misconduct.
“It could have been dealt with by management advice or reflective practice.”
He said PC A and DI Greaves, who both gave evidence in person, were credible witnesses.
Mr Holden said the ex-detective spoke with passion about his policing role and had clearly reflected and learned from what had happened.
The hearing was told the pair had a brief conversation after DI Greaves, who was in charge of CID in Bridgwater, recognised her at the town’s police station near the end of his shift around 11pm in 2023.
He asked where he knew her from and she replied it was at a serious incident several months earlier which they both attended.
DI Greaves, who had offered short-term attachments with CID to hundreds of uniformed officers during his career as part of his recruitment role as a team leader, then asked PC A if she was interested in that.
The panel disagreed with Mr Ley-Morgan’s claim that she made it clear she was not and that there was therefore no need for him to send her a follow-up message, which the barrister called ‘unwanted and flirtatious’.
Mr Holden said DI Greaves logging onto the force’s database, called Niche, minutes after arriving home after his shift to find her name was for a policing purpose of recruitment.
He said the officer’s message to her was ‘entirely consistent’ with what he had done many times previously to follow up an in-person discussion about a CID attachment.
“It was an important part of his remit and therefore the search had a legitimate policing purpose,” Mr Holden said.
“While the panel acknowledged her feelings, the officer had no reason to believe his behaviour was unwanted.
“There was no suggestion of posturing, touching or reference to her appearance.”
Mr Holden said that when he later found out that the encounter had made PC A feel awkward, he was ‘devastated’.
The panel chair said there was no evidence to support Mr Ley-Morgan’s claim that the officer’s behaviour amounted to ‘conduct which had the purpose or effect of violating the dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her’, or that it was less favourable treatment because she was a woman.
The former officer, a married dad, now works as a manager for a multinational company.