A CUMBRIA police sergeant has been sacked after becoming involved in the investigation of an assault on a teenager he knew.

Sergeant Graham Boyd was dismissed for directing a police investigation on April 21 2023 while he had personal involvement in it. 

He was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to confidentiality, orders and instructions, authority respect and courtesy and honesty and integrity.

A misconduct hearing ruled his actions 'fell sufficiently far below the standards of professional behaviour as to amount to gross misconduct.'

According to the police misconduct report, the allegations made against Sergeant Boyd related to the investigation into the assault of a 13-year-old.

Sergeant Boyd knew the mother of the victim, referred to as Ms A, and arrived straight after the alleged assault on April 20, 2023, to speak to her in a personal capacity. 

Over the following days he shared with her real-time information in relation to the progress of the investigation and attempted to get more information to bolster the prosecution case, a misconduct hearing heard.

He failed to disclose his actions to the officer in charge and made a number of derogatory comments about the suspects to the victim's mother.

During their detention, he told Ms A that "these scruffy little f***s can sit in the cell a bit".

In relation to the youths, he also added: "Will send two of mine to lock the lass up, see how we get on xx, will get her phone seized xx, then f**ing ruin the rest of them".

He also referred to them as 'these f****s' and 'these p***s' and suggested a proposal of pre-charge bail condition of 'not to breath' and 'you are prohibited from being alive'.

His failure to disclose his actions potentially compromised the case and prevented onward disclosure to the Crown Prosecution Service in compliance with Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996.

He admitted all the allegations.

Sergeant Boyd stated he was, at the time, and that he continues to, suffer with workplace and personal emotional and mental health issues.

The hearing found that there was no suggestion as to how these issues affected him on the two days in question.

The allegations were ultimately accepted by the former police Sergeant and he was deemed to be in breach of both Data Protection Act 2018 and Cumbria Constabulary Information Security Policy and Procedures. 

As part of the misconduct hearing report, Chief Constable Robert Carden wrote: "Whilst there is no suggestion that the Police investigation was actually compromised, the risk of this would have been all too obvious to Sergeant Boyd.

"Sergeant Boyd’s conduct involved clear and serious breaches of the Standards of Professional Behaviour.

"In acting as he did, he exposed the Constabulary and colleagues to reputational harm, which could seriously undermine the public’s trust and confidence in policing.

"The actions of Sergeant Boyd were premeditated and deliberate.  There was clearly an abuse of trust and there were numerous breaches of confidentiality over the two-day period in question.

"The highly inappropriate and offensive comments made about the suspects in that investigation were totally unacceptable and would obviously undermine public confidence in policing if known to the public. 

"Anything less than dismissal without notice would seriously undermine public trust and confidence in the police, would cause additional serious harm to the reputation of the police and would not act as a deterrent to others inclined towards similar behaviour. 

"Furthermore, importantly a dismissal is necessary in order to protect the public from a police officer who so clearly lacks the integrity and standards required of the role by barring his re-entry from the profession."