South Wales police officer quits after Grindr messages to 'boy, 14'

Former PC Anthony French asked who he believed was a 14-year-old boy for pictures of their body, the hearing was told

A policeman sent inappropriate messages on gay dating app Grindr to an undercover officer who he believed was a 14-year-old boy, a misconduct hearing has been told.

PC Anthony French, 47, allegedly sent several messages in a three-hour period and was arrested the following day.

The South Wales Police officer quit the force before the hearing.

It was found his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct and he was banned from future policing.

It is alleged that while messaging the officer posing as a teen he was, at the same time, accessing a gay pornographic website.

'Let's see this skinny bod'

He initially sent a message saying "cute", to which the undercover officer, acting under the name of Cai, responded that he was 14.

PC French then asked if that was him in the picture on the app. "Cai" confirmed it was and PC French responded: "You don't look 14... rugby buff, are you?"

The undercover officer responded: "Ha ha, a bit skinny", to which PC French replied: "Don't look it. Let's see this skinny bod?"

After his arrest he was interviewed by police and said his phone had undergone a factory reset in February and he had not used Grindr since then.

He denied sending any messages to the undercover officer.

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The hearing was told that specialist police units had confirmed it was him using the iPhone at the time and sending messages via the Grindr app.

It found he had breached the standards of professional behaviour and it was discreditable conduct, gross misconduct and that he would have been sacked had he not already quit.

A file of evidence was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service which decided not to pursue any criminal charges.

Delivering his judgement, Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan said: "Whilst the CPS considered that this did not meet a criminal threshold, it both met and significantly exceeded my threshold when setting the standards of behaviour within South Wales Police."

Ch Supt Mark Lenihan, the head of professional standards, said he should have known that such messages were illegal.

"During interview he clearly lied to officers in an attempt to mislead the investigating officers and to avoid prosecution."