Lucy-Anne Rushton murder: Fake signature detective 'let down' force

Lucy-Anne Rushton was murdered by her estranged husband in 2019

A detective "grossly let down" his profession when he forged signatures on a witness statement during a murder probe, a misconduct panel has heard.

Det Con Robert Ferrow, 50, who worked for Hampshire Constabulary, faked the signatures while he investigated the death of Lucy-Anne Rushton in 2019.

Ferrow was jailed at Winchester Crown Court for eight months in September.

Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney said Ferrow would have been dismissed from the force had he not already resigned.

Mother-of-five Ms Rushton, 30, was murdered by her estranged husband Shaun Dyson in Andover in the early hours of 23 June 2019.

Ferrow, who had 18 years of experience as a police officer, allowed a witness to sign blank pages and go home so he could transcribe notes from their conversation.

He then signed more pages himself when he ran out of sheets.

Shaun Dyson was jailed for a minimum of 17 years for murdering Lucy-Anne Rushton

Ferrow's forgery was discovered when the witness returned the following day to check the statement was accurate - and saw that some of the completed pages had not been signed by him.

Ms Pinkney told a police misconduct panel that Ferrow "made the most awful situation worse" and that he had "grossly let down" colleagues by acting with "wilful dishonesty and absolute lack of integrity".

"Clearly a criminal conviction of any matter is extremely serious, but forgery for an experienced officer in the most serious investigation, potentially putting at risk justice for the family of a victim of murder - it doesn't get more serious than that," the chief constable said.

"That is gross misconduct - how could it be otherwise?"

Ms Pinkney added: "Homicide investigators are the very best of the bunch and have been grossly let down by his actions.

"Had he been serving I would have had no hesitation in dismissing him today."