A police officer was blackmailed after he got caught carrying out sex acts online while working from home. PC Alexander Pead, 26, was caught in sex acts while on the Internet when he was supposed to be on the clock, a police misconduct hearing was told.
As a result, the officer then became a victim of blackmail over those online sex acts and lied about it when he reported it to his boss. He has now been kicked out of the force and banned from serving in the police.
A misconduct hearing found PC Pead had committed gross misconduct. The panel said the officer - who was based at Hasting police station - breached standards of professional behaviour over his discreditable conduct and the way he followed orders.
As a result he was dismissed from Sussex Police and will be added to the College of Policing barred list blocking any return to policing. A spokesman for Sussex Police said: "The hearing heard that the officer then became a victim of blackmail over those activities and gave a false account of them when he reported them to his supervisor.
"In doing so, the panel found that he had breached standards of professional behaviour in respect of discreditable conduct, following orders and instructions, duties and responsibilities and honesty and integrity and this amounted to gross misconduct.
"The officer was dismissed and will now be added to the College of Policing Barred list."
Superintendent Petra Lazar, deputy head of Professional Standards at Sussex Police, slammed the officer after the hearing.
She said: “We expect our officers to act with the utmost integrity, and in accordance with the Code of Ethics and the Standards of Professional Behaviour, and we have invested in a comprehensive programme of cultural change towards challenging, reporting and tackling unethical or unprofessional behaviour.
“Criminal behaviour, misconduct, and misogyny have no place in Sussex Police.
“The actions of this officer in this case fell far short of the standards we expect, which is reflected in the findings by the panel.”
