WhatsApp video Cleveland PC barred from working as officer
- Published
Phillip Taylor had worked for Cleveland Police for 18 years
A former police officer who had a "disgusting" video sent to him on WhatsApp has been barred from serving as an officer.
Phillip Taylor, a PC for Cleveland Police for 18 years, admitted possessing a video showing a person perform a sex act with a dog.
He was found guilty of gross misconduct at a force disciplinary hearing.
Mr Taylor, who resigned from the force, accepted a caution for possessing an extreme pornographic video.
'Grossly offensive'
He was sent the video in a WhatsApp group for football fans containing 43 people, the hearing in Stockton was told.
Det Con Susan Moore said the former officer, who worked in the vulnerability unit, should have deleted and reported the video, but he did nothing with it for more than a year until it was found on his phone.
She described it, under the legislation, as "grossly offensive, disgusting or of an otherwise obscene character".
Chief Constable Mark Webster said the evidence was irrefutable and Mr Taylor had previously accepted, prior to his resignation, that he would be dismissed for the offence.
Mr Webster said: "I am conscious of the wider scrutiny that police conduct is under at the moment and for the need to reassure the public that standards are being upheld."
'Sincerely apologises'
He said Mr Taylor would have been dismissed if he had not already stood down, and said he would be barred from working for the police again.
The Chief Constable clarified that the WhatsApp group was not for police officers, but was based around football.
After the hearing, he told reporters: "His behaviour was disgusting, I am not having that in this force."
Peter Littlewood, the vice chair of Cleveland Police Federation who represented Mr Taylor, told the hearing: "He sincerely apologises not only for the work he has created for our service, but also for any harm his behaviour may have caused."
The former officer was aware of the hearing but did not attend.
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