London: In a shocking incident, a married police officer has been sacked after sexual messages he sent an underage teen were exposed – including one which read: ‘You like sex?’.
Police Constable, Ian Bell’s award-winning 23-year-long career in the police service has been left in tatters after the seedy messages to the teenage 14-year-old girl via Snapchat came to light.
He admitted sending them while drunk and said: “I let the force down and I let myself down.”
The cop had met the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, while working on a missing person case at the children’s home on July 19 last year.
Though, he spotted a 14-year-old girl wearing a towel on the landing as she went for a bath.
He heard her ‘swishing’ about and ended up speaking to her for around half an hour.
The next day, while off-duty and drunk, he messaged the girl in care after researching her details online when his wife had gone to bed.
At first she didn’t know who he was and feared he was a “Snapchat stalker.”
The hearing heard how the officer was accused of asking to “see her in a towel” and if “she liked sex” and if she liked taking drugs at parties.
The hearing was told Bell obtained the girl’s details from her Facebook account.
Married police officer send message to teenage girl asking her: “You like sex?”:
The cop denied having a sexual motive after telling the teen to ‘please delete everything’ in one message.
However, the three-person panel sitting in Wakefield, West Yorks, disagreed and found that his motivation was purely “sexual gratification”.
Misconduct panel chairman Geoffrey Payne said vulnerable people must be protected from abuse by those in a position of power.
The Police Constable had admitted misconduct but denied gross misconduct, a sackable offence.
Speaking at the hearing, the officer told the panel: “I was off-duty, intoxicated, talking to a 14-year-old person.”
The cop had been given numerous awards and commendations in his “unblemished” 23 years with the force, until this point, his legal representative Adam Birkby said.
Mr Birkby suggested Bell could stay in the force in a non-public-facing role and that there was a position available for him in its Control Room in Wakefield.
Mr Payne said his panel rejected this suggestion, saying dismissal without notice was the only outcome that would “protect the public and maintain public confidence in the police”.
PC Bell was dismissed without notice on Tuesday.
