Police officer sacked for leaking name of Covid party accuser

PC Peter Ashton asked a counter assistant at Rhyl Police Station to search for Covid-related reports on New Year's Eve 2020

A police officer has been sacked after allegedly leaking the name of a woman who reported her aunt and uncle over a planned Covid-rule breaking party.

PC Peter Ashton, of North Wales Police, had been in the Freemasons, as had the uncle, known as Mr A.

Officers attended Mr and Mrs A's house on New Year's Eve 2020, but found nothing untoward.

PC Ashton had denied leaking the informant's name, but was sacked after a misconduct hearing.

The misconduct panel heard how PC Ashton asked for the Covid-related reports in February 2021, asking the counter assistant to search a police computer.

He was accused of then passing on the name of the woman who had reported Mr and Mrs A to them.

The misconduct panel said the counter assistant was "a conscientious employee who was exploited by PC Ashton" so there was no computer record of him accessing the information.

PC Ashton allegedly maintained he had been asked to investigate Covid incidents on the previous New Year's Eve by a supervisor.

'Dishonest'

He strongly denied leaking the name to Mr and Mrs A, but the panel found the allegation proved and branded him "dishonest" in his dealing with the police counter assistant.

The panel said Mr and Mrs A's niece, the complainant, had the right to have her name treated as confidential.

It said she "put her trust in the police to protect her identity. This was particularly important in this case because she was providing information about her relatives which could cause difficulties within the family if it became known that she was the source of the information".

Six allegations against PC Ashton were found proven at the police misconduct hearing in April and he was sacked for gross misconduct by abuse of his position.

The niece had been "distress and embarrassment" and there was a lot of friction within her family because of what happened.

The deceived police counter assistant told the panel she was now "very untrusting of officers".