Police chief lays down law on misconduct

Damian Kitchen was appointed as the chief of Guernsey Police in November

Guernsey's chief police officer has said "there is no hiding place" for people who behave wrongly in public office while he is leading the force.

It comes after a former Guernsey Police officer, found to have behaved sexually inappropriately with female colleagues, resigned from the force.

The former officer did not attend a hearing last week where eight of the nine misconduct allegations were "proven and constituted gross misconduct".

Damian Kitchen, Guernsey Police's chief officer, said he wanted the island's force to be able to add ex-officers to the UK's 'Barred Officers' list, to prevent them from working in other forces within the UK.

'No hiding place'

Mr Kitchen said it was important to carry out the hearing, to show resignation did not preclude him from pursuing this kind of behaviour.

The hearing found the officer would have been sacked for gross misconduct had he not already resigned.

Mr Kitchen said: "You could look at this and say that well the problem has gone, the officer's resigned, so that is kind of job done.

"I completely disagree with that stance, I think that it's really important in terms of firstly, a message to our staff, that there's no hiding place for people who behave in the manner that this officer behaved towards his colleagues.

"Secondly, in terms of public confidence, I think it's very important to show that…if any of my officers have behaved wrongly whilst holding public office, that resignation does not preclude me from pursuing that behaviour."

Mr Kitchen, who was appointed as Guernsey Police's chief in November, said a lot of work had been done on the island to professionalise the force's approach to standards and misconduct.

He said he was aware one incident would not increase the public's confidence in policing on its own - but this instance was a "very important building block" in showing the public he would be "very open and honest" around any behaviour where the force did "not come up to the mark".

Poppy Murray is a women's rights campaigner from Guernsey

Poppy Murray, who campaigns to tackle violence against women and girls, said it was "encouraging" to see something being done about the ex-officer's misconduct.

She said: "I think it's really awful that this kind of behaviour was happening...but I also think, particularly as a member of the public myself that it's so encouraging to see that something has actually been done about it."

Ms Murray said she was also encouraged by Mr Kitchen's plans for the police force.

She added: "I really do think that we're going to see a brighter future, particularly for victims in the island, and I'm really looking forward to that."