Allegations of domestic abuse and sexual misconduct against serving police officers

The request was successful.

Dear FOI Team,

I write to request the number of allegations of domestic abuse and sexual misconduct (including rape) made against serving police officers between January 2017 and June 2022.

As part of this, I would like the information to be broken down into the following:

i) The number of allegations of domestic abuse and sexual misconduct, (including rape) made against serving police officers each year – from January 2017 to June 2022, including a grand total;

ii) The sex and gender of each officer against whom an allegation was made;

iii) The number of allegations that were upheld and resulted in disciplinary action – including dismissal, and the number of allegations that were discontinued;

iv) The number of officers against whom allegations were made are still serving police officers.

Please provide the information in Excel format.

Yours faithfully,

Oliver Murphy

Police Service of Northern Ireland

This e-mail has been marked OFFICIAL [PUBLIC];

15th July 2022

Dear Mr. Murphy,

FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000

I write in connection with your request for information dated 15th July
2022 which was received by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)
on 15th July 2022.  I note you seek access to the following information:

Allegations of Domestic Abuse and Sexual Misconduct Against Serving Police
Officers

This request will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. A response should be sent to you within 20 working
days however I would like to advise you that PSNI are currently
experiencing a delay in the processing of requests and we aim to respond
to your request as soon as possible.

If your request is unclear and clarification is required the 20 day
legislative time limit dictated by the Freedom of Information Act 2000
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anew the day after the clarification is received. It states

“If the requester subsequently provides enough detail to enable the
authority to identify and locate the information, then the authority must
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clarification.”

The link for this is:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

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Yours sincerely,

Chris

Corporate Information Branch
PSNI HQ Brooklyn

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References

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Police Service of Northern Ireland

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This e-mail has been marked OFFICIAL [PUBLIC];

Subject: FOI-2022-01715
10^th August 2022

Dear Mr. Murphy,

FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000

I write in connection with your request for information dated 15th July
2022 which was received by the Police Service of Northern Ireland on 15th
July 2022 concerning:

Allegations of Domestic Abuse and Sexual Misconduct Against Serving Police
Officers

Please find attached response to your request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Jaclyn
FOI Decision Maker
Corporate Information Branch
PSNI HQ Brooklyn

028 9070 0164

show quoted sections

Dear Police Service of Northern Ireland,

Thank you for providing the above information. Can I check whether the data provided for Q1 is for both domestic abuse and or sexual misconduct, or just domestic abuse?

Yours faithfully,

Oliver Murphy

Police Service of Northern Ireland

This e-mail has been marked OFFICIAL [PUBLIC];

Subject: FOI-2022-01715
15^th August 2022

Dear Mr. Murphy,

FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000

I write in connection with your request for further information dated
12^th August 2022 received by the Police Service of Northern Ireland
concerning:

Allegations of Domestic Abuse and Sexual Misconduct Against Serving Police
Officers

I can confirm that the data supplied in response to request 1 is in
relation to allegations of both Domestic Abuse or Sexual Misconduct
against police officers.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Jaclyn
FOI Decision Maker
Corporate Information Branch
PSNI HQ Brooklyn

028 9070 0164

 

show quoted sections

Dear Police Service of Northern Ireland,

Could this please be broken down so that domestic abuse and sexual misconduct are separate fields?

Yours faithfully,

Oliver Murphy

Police Service of Northern Ireland

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This e-mail has been marked OFFICIAL [PUBLIC];

Subject: FOI-2022-01715
14th October 2022

Dear Mr. Murphy,

FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000

I write in connection with your request for information dated 15th July
2022 which was received by the Police Service of Northern Ireland on 15th
July 2022 concerning:

Allegations of Domestic Abuse and Sexual Misconduct Against Serving Police
Officers

Please find attached response to your follow on request.

I trust this assists.

Yours sincerely

 

Jaclyn
Corporate Information Branch
PSNI HQ Brooklyn

show quoted sections

J Roberts left an annotation ()

The PSNI Disclosure Log (F-2021-00880) provides different domestic abuse figures for calendar years and includes this:

https://www.psni.police.uk/sites/default...

'i) Disciplinary action was taken against officers in the following number of domestic abuse cases during the past 5 years:

a) 2016/17 - 7
b) 2017/18 - 1
c) 2018/19 - 5
d) 2019/20 - 1
e) 2020/21 - 1

and this:

' v). The following number of officers were prosecuted for domestic abuse cases during the past 5 years:

a) 2016/17- 1
b) 2017/18 - 0
c) 2018/19 - 2
d) 2019/20 - 0
e) 2020/21 - 1'

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Belfast Live 1/6/23:

'Allegations of domestic abuse and sexual misconduct, including rape, have been made against 80 serving PSNI officers in the last 11 months, Belfast Live can reveal.
...
Of the 80 allegations, 68 were made against male officers, and 12 against female officers. 74 of the officers against whom allegations have been made are still serving officers.'

(includes monthly table)

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/north...

Belfast Telegraph 6/6/23:

'No PSNI officer above the rank of chief inspector was disciplined for misconduct in the five years before 2022, new figures reveal.
However, 174 officers of chief inspector rank and below received a formal sanction over the same duration.'

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/...

F-2023-00580

'Please see the table below which shows the number of sexual allegations that have been made against PSNI officers.'

https://www.psni.police.uk/sites/default...

F-2023-00663

'A total of 10 officers were allowed to retire whilst under investigation for internal misconduct cases opened in 2021 and 2022.'

https://www.psni.police.uk/sites/default...

F-2022-03014

'In the last 5 years how many officers have been dismissed for Misconduct? Please include this information for each of the previous 5 years individually.'

https://www.psni.police.uk/sites/default...

FOI-2022-02482

'Please see below breakdown of total costs to PSNI for officers who were suspended on paid leave and later dismissed from the service for the past 5 financial years (up to the 2021/2022 financial year).'

https://www.psni.police.uk/sites/default...

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Belfast Telegraph:

'It will concern many that, in the space of just a year, allegations of domestic abuse or sexual misconduct were made against 80 officers.

Currently, 32 are suspended from duty on suspicion of sexual misconduct while investigations continue.'

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opini...

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Belfast Telegraph (£) 4/9/23:

'A police officer has been booted out of the PSNI after being convicted of rape and sexual assault'.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunda...

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Belfast Live 29/11/23:

'106 complaints were made against both PSNI officers and civilian staff between October 2022 and 2023, with allegations including sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape and an isolated complaint of child sexual abuse.

The FOI data, provided by the PSNI to personalinjuryclaimsuk.org.uk on 23 November, also showed that eight police officers have been dismissed from their roles in the last year over sexual misconduct complaints.'

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/north...

F-2023-01636 PSNI July 2023:

'A total of 4 officers have been reported for alleged abuse of position for sexual gain. No police staff.

Request 2

How many of these reports resulted in any sort of professional disciplinary action of an officer or staff member?

Answer

None of these officers have been subject to discipline.'

https://www.psni.police.uk/sites/default...

Belfast Telegraph 20/11/23:

'A disgraced police officer, jailed for abusing his position of power to exploit a vulnerable young woman to conduct a year-long illicit affair, has pleaded guilty to stealing Scalextric toys.

Appearing at Lisburn Magistrates’ Court by videolink from his home in England today, Mark Goddard (38) entered a guilty plea to a count of theft between January 1, 2017 and November 23, 2019.'

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/...