Avon and Somerset detective sacked over teenager sex offender visit

Det Sgt Nicola Coutts arranged for a teenager to accompany a police officer on a visit to a sex offender

A detective who arranged for a teenage family friend to accompany a police officer on a visit to a sex offender has been dismissed.

Det Sgt Nicola Coutts, who worked for Avon and Somerset Police for 27 years, arranged for the girl to spend a day with the police on work experience.

Nobody had agreed to this work experience taking place and the teenager had not been vetted.

Det Sgt Coutts was found guilty of gross misconduct.

During the work experience day in October, the teenager was allowed to accompany a police officer on a visit to the home of a sex offender who was the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

He had paid to watch child abuse online and obtained indecent images of children.

As a 17-year-old school girl, she should have been considered to be vulnerable and should not have been put in this situation.

'Snuck this person in'

Ms Coutts asked someone who she supervised to carry out the visit and this person assumed correct checks had taken place.

Ms Coutts also told people that the teenager was a university student who was studying criminology.

However, Ms Coutts admitted to some colleagues that she had "snuck this person in".

During a misconduct hearing Chief Constable Sarah Crew asked Ms Coutts what her motivation was.

She replied that she "just wanted to help a family friend".

She added that she wanted to give her a "positive experience of policing" and wanted to help her.

She said: "I don't know where my head was, I just wasn't thinking straight."

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