A judge has ruled it was unreasonable to fire a ‘lonely’ country cop after he had sex with a woman who he was investigating for assault.
The senior constable, who cannot be named, was dismissed from his duties after coming forward in February 2022 to confess he’d ‘stuffed up’.
‘I knew that there was – there’s no way around it, that I had to go straight in and just pretty much tell them what had occurred,’ he said.
The officer was sacked by Victoria Police in June last year, about 18 months after self-reporting the incident to a senior officer the following morning.
He was cleared of any wrongdoing after appealing the decision to the Police Registration and Services Board, but the case landed in the state’s Supreme Court this year after the Chief Commissioner of Police sought to challenge that judgement.
The court was told the officer had been off-duty and drinking with a colleague at the Rafferty’s Tavern in Warrnambool on February 14, 2022, when he was approached by the woman who he’d been tasked with investigating in relation to an alleged assault.
The pair began socialising and had sex later the same night after the woman offered to drive him home.
In the Board’s judgement, they commended the officer for his ‘moral courage’ in disclosing what happened and found a charge of breach of discipline was not proven.
The senior constable, who cannot be named, was dismissed from his duties after coming forward in February 2022 to confess he’d ‘stuffed up’
Handing down his judgment on Thursday, Justice Michael McDonald found the officer had indeed breached conflict of interest policies. But he agreed the initial decision to sack the man was ‘harsh, unjust or unreasonable’ and sent it back to the Police Registration and Services Board to decide on a new penalty
‘We are not suggesting his brief liaison with [the woman] was a great idea or a good thing for his career. It was not,’ the Board wrote.
‘But it was a very human decision made by a young man in a new town, after a break-up, on a night out after many drinks, who was lonely, who responded to attention, who was possibly not thinking too well.’
Counsel for the Chief Commissioner, Elizabeth Bennett SC, argued the Board’s decision effectively condoned the officer’s actions, labelling it ‘illogical’.
Handing down his judgment on Thursday, Justice Michael McDonald found the officer had indeed breached conflict of interest policies.
But he agreed the initial decision to sack the man was ‘harsh, unjust or unreasonable’ and sent it back to the Police Registration and Services Board to decide on a new penalty.
‘There is utility in remitting [the officer’s] application for review of the dismissal decision to a differently constituted Board for rehearing,’ he said.
‘The Board has a broad discretion as to what relief should be granted. The Board will be required to consider afresh the exercise of that discretion.’
Victoria (Australia)Melbourne
