A serving Metropolitan police officer has been sacked after accessing confidential files about the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
PC Myles McHugh was among three officers who were found to have committed gross misconduct at a three-week disciplinary tribunal in south-east London.
The tribunal said a former trainee detective constable, Hannah Rebbeck, who also accessed the sensitive data, would have been sacked without notice had she not already left the force. Sgt Mark Harper was given a final written warning, which will remain in place for three years.
Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by the then serving Met officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.
McHugh’s and Rebbeck’s actions were described by the panel as an “egregious breach of trust”.
McHugh looked at information about Everard’s medical history, relationships, employment and lifestyle. The panel said his behaviour was at the “higher end of harm” as he was dismissed without notice for repeatedly accessing the police system on matters that had nothing to do with his duties.
He looked at personal data that was “very sensitive” and “he attempted to discuss what he had seen with his colleagues”, according to the panel chair, Sharmistha Michaels.
She said he acted out of a “curiosity” about the investigation as he accessed data “extensively and accumulatively” but stopped looking for the information after Couzens was arrested.
After the hearing, the Met said the panel heard that McHugh accessed the information while off duty and for a significant period of time, while Rebbeck was found to have repeatedly accessed sensitive data without any link to her duties.
The panel ruled the breaches of professional standards were so serious that the only appropriate outcome was dismissal.
DC Tyrone Ward, Akinwale Ajose-Adeogun, a former inspector, and Robert Butters, a former detective sergeant, faced the same misconduct hearing, and the tribunal ruled they “did have a legitimate reason” for accessing the information and therefore had not breached any policing standards.
