Des O’Connor’s daughter has lost a High Court battle after a Metropolitan Police detective who called her “amazingly hot” kept his job. Kristina O’Connor was sexually harassed by Sergeant James Mason after she fell victim to a violent mugging and he was involved in investigating the crime.
The officer, then based at Kentish Town police station, asked Ms O’Connor out for a drink and told her she had “taken top spot as my favourite Camden victim of crime”.Mr Mason, who went on to be a Detective Chief Inspector, faced disciplinary proceedings in 2020 over the approach to Ms O’Connor, and left the force in November last year.
A misconduct panel found him guilty of gross misconduct, and issued a final written warning rather than a more serious punishment.
Ms O’Connor challenged the decision, arguing the panel had failed to address Mr Mason’s “predatory and abusive” actions and saying the Metropolitan Police had “failed to properly investigate” a complaint.
But Mr Justice Swift, in a ruling on Friday, dismissed her application for judicial review.Lawyers representing Ms O’Connor have indicated they are considering an appeal.
Ms O’Connor fell victim to a robbery in October 2011, when she was surrounded by four men in the street in a bid to steal her phone.
The then-24-year-old was left feeling “vulnerable, helpless, and distressed” by the mugging, and then found herself fending off the advances of a police officer around a decade her senior who was supposed to be helping her.
“She felt exploited, vulnerable, alone, and frightened”, her barrister Fiona Murphy KC told the court.
Ms O’Connor told Mason that she worked as a croupier at the Playboy casino in Mayfair, and in response he asked her about what she wore at work, among a string of “intrusive, personal questions”.
She says Mason “used heavy sexual overtones” in conversations at the police station, and asked her out for dinner when she said she had been mugged on the walk to Sainsbury’s for food shopping.
In later emails as Ms O’Connor sought to assist the police investigation, Mason invited her out for a drink, offered to take her picture, and said despite her injuries from the robbery “I am sure you still looking amazingly hot”, the court heard.
Knocked back, Mason continued: “Coming on to victims is positively encouraged, it’s all part of the friendly and accessible face of the Met Police. It’s the rejection that is frowned upon.”
When Ms O’Connor told him: “You have no shame! You could get fired for this!”, Mason replied: “You are probably right on both counts. I can assure that I am as determined in my pursuit of criminals as I am of beautiful women if that helps. You know where I am if you ever change your mind or need a friendly Police officer.”
The officer then added that she has “taken top spot as my favourite Camden victim of crime.”
Ms O’Connor reported Mason’s behaviour in October 2020, leading to a three-year written warning from the disciplinary panel.
Ruling on the judicial review application, Mr Justice Swift said a finding of gross misconduct “does not inevitably result in dismissal”, and the panel was entitled to take into account Mason’s policing record.
“While this was a case of sexual harassment, the Panel was entitled to have in mind precisely what the harassment had comprised”, he said.
“It was also entitled to attach weight to the fact that the complaint had been made only some ten years after the misconduct had occurred, and Mr Mason’s previous record of good service, including that there had been no reports that Mr Mason had acted in any similar inappropriate manner on any other occasion.”
Mason’s misconduct hearing happened just days after Wayne Couzens had been jailed for life for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard and another officer, David Carrick, had been first been identified as a rapist – with Scotland Yard in the grip of a full-blown crisis.
Mason received a commendation for his handling of the response to the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack in 2018, and had worked as a staff officerfor former Met commissioner Cressida Dick. He retired from the Met in 2022, and contested all parts of Ms O’Connor’s Judicial Review claim. After the ruling, Ms O’Connor said: “This has been a frustrating process, and it is not the outcome I was hoping for but I want tokeep fighting for justice for women.”
Lawyer Nancy Collins, who represents her and is based at Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors, added: “It is very disappointing that the High Court has dismissed Kristina O’Connor’s challenge to the police disciplinary process.”
