File picture of police officers
(Picture: PA Archive)A firearms officer in the Metropolitan Police quit the force after steroids were detected in his bloodstream, a misconduct hearing heard.
PC Lee Ashby, one of the first armed officers to respond to the Westminster Terror attack in 2017, claimed that he had been given the pills at the gym by a friend and had no idea they contained steroids.
But he failed to give up the name of the friend or a letter on his behalf for his misconduct hearing with the panel finding his explanation “unlikely”.
The Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection officer was criticised for taking one-and-a-half minutes to get to the scene from his patrol after terrorist Khalid Masood stabbed PC Keith Palmer to death during the Westminster Bridge terror attack.
Masood, 52, killed Kurt Cochran, 54, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, when he mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing Palmer to death.
PC Ashby claimed he had been going to the gym regularly after witnessing Keith Palmer die from his multiple stab wounds.
He said he had purchased supplements from high street stores and a friend had given him a bottle of capsule supplements because they were giving his friend a headache.
PC Ashby was subject to a “with cause” drugs test in June 2022 which revealed he had used the illegal Anabolic Sterioid Boldenone M1.
When the firearms officer was informed of the result three months later he claimed he had not taken the steroids deliberately.
But before he could be sacked he handed in a notice of his resignation, and his last day in the Metropolitan Police was on October 25 2022.
Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray said had Ashby not resigned he would have been sacked from the force anyway.
She reasoned that “steroids could increase the risk of a person showing irritability, aggression, anger, paranoia, severe mood swings, and sleep disturbance”.
She continued: “That would be serious for any police officer. However, it is all the more serious for an officer who was in Mr Ashby’s role. I have no evidence that he did have those side effects, but he would have been placed at increased risk of them. This would have had severe implications for public safety and protection.”
“Mr Ashby, on my findings, intentionally chose to take supplements that contained steroids.
“But, even if this was reckless, he failed to show the minimum due diligence that was required from someone in his position. Whether or not he started working-out at the gym following difficulties arising from the Westminster Bridge incident, there is no link to, or justification for, his taking steroids whether deliberately or recklessly.”
She said even if Ashby had unknowingly taken steroids his position as an armed officer meant that he should have taken more care of what he put in to his body.
Ashby’s name will be added to the Police Barred List and he will be unable to work as a police officer in the future.
