Cocaine-taking special constable invited man home from dating app in lockdown before calling housemates ‘c***s’

A volunteer police officer has been sacked after inviting a person home from a dating app - before telling concerned housemates they were ‘c***s’

The special constable was found ‘scarily intoxicated’ in his room in Bristol with a man by a housemate while the city was in tier 4 lockdown, a police misconduct hearing was told.

When the housemate and two others alerted police, his behaviour turned and he tried to break down the door to her room before telling them they had ruined his career and calling them ‘c**s’.

The misconduct hearing for the unnamed officer, identified only as Special Constable A, was also told of another incident where he had drunkenly filming himself in uniform, saying he was going to ticket parked cars using his own bank details.

The officer, who handed in his resignation on November 4, was handed a conditional caution and sent on a drug awareness course after admitting taking cocaine and crystal meth.

He did not attend the misconduct hearing on November 17, when he was dismissed without notice from Avon and Somerset Police.

Representing the force, Elliot Gold said Special Constable A’s housemates grew concerned about his drinking and intimidating behaviour following a break-up.

“He sent his housemate a Snapchat video showing him drunk and saying he was going to find cars in their road and issue them with tickets. She received a further video of him taking a ticket off a car and saying it wasn’t funny,” he said.

“[Another housemate] said SC A thought it would be funny to put tickets on a car and put his bank details in the tickets.

“He recorded himself in uniform referring to a woman as a bitch.”

Housemates knew the officer from university and said he was usually happy and fun, but he had started drinking “almost constantly” following a breakup and become intimidating.

They used his birthday in February for an “intervention” to tell him they were worried about him.

After telling them he would go home, SC A sent one of his housemates a video saying he had had sex the previous evening.

She knocked on his door and found him “scarily intoxicated”, with a man still inside the room. Bristol was in tier 4 at the time, meaning people could not meet others from outside their households indoors.

After reporting the lockdown breach, she shut herself in her room with two other housemates, who made further urgent calls to the police as the officer’s behaviour escalated and he tried to break down the door. He was ultimately arrested and taken to Patchway police station.

Mr Gold said: “He shouted at his housemates that they were c***s and had ruined his career.

“He told the young women to tell the police to de-arrest him. While in the police car he sent a message saying “I’m going to top myself because of you”.

“That could be seen as a further attempt to persuade his housemates not to pursue the matter or make them feel guilty.”

When interviewed he admitted drinking an “unhealthy amount” and taking cocaine, and said someone had offered him crystal meth but he did not remember doing it. He claimed his housemates had exaggerated his drug use.

Special constables are volunteers with the same powers as regular officers.

Mr Gold said SC A should have been setting an example – instead he breached lockdown rules, he was threatening towards young women and used misogynistic language, consumed class A drugs, and abused his power by putting his own bank details on parking tickets.

The hearing was told SC A had a mood disorder, but Mr Gold said there was not enough evidence that the disability contributed to the officer’s behaviour.

Wiltshire Police chief constable Kier Pritchard, who chaired the virtual hearing, said SC A’s actions discredited the police, undermined public confidence and amounted to gross misconduct.

He ruled that the officer should be dismissed without notice.