A married police officer has been sacked after he groped a female colleague’s bottom at a work Christmas party.
Pc Kevin Beedel, who claimed he was “just being friendly”, repeatedly touched her despite being warned to stop, a misconduct hearing was told.
The female officer, named only as Pc A, did not report the incident because she thought it would be “brushed under the carpet” and could damage her career.
She described a “laddish culture” in their Metropolitan Police team, with sexual innuendos made about female officers.
A damning 2023 review by Baroness Louise Casey found the force was institutionally misogynistic.
Scotland Yard has vowed to kick wrongdoers out of the force.
Pc A told the misconduct panel that she was standing at a casino table with Pc Beedel during a 2018 team Christmas party at a venue in Hertfordshire, when she “felt a hand on her left bottom cheek”.
She was “shocked” and when she turned, saw he had his hand on her bottom.
She told him: “Don’t do that”, to which Pc Beedel replied: “I’m just being friendly”, the panel heard.
The officer removed his hand several times from her bottom but he kept putting it back there.
She was shocked because Pc Beedel had just married, the panel heard.
She later shuffled around the casino table to try to get away from him.
Pc A described seeing a group of her male colleagues behind her at the bar. One of the group had his phone out and they were laughing.
When she approached them to ask what they were doing, they tried to hide the phone from her, the panel heard.
The officer was “very upset” that her team had not intervened.
“The fact that no one did anything was an added layer of upset and surprise for her,” the panel said.
Pc Beedel denied sexually assaulting Pc A, saying he was “100 per cent sure of this because it is something that he would never do”.
He told the panel he respected her as an officer and had no romantic interest in her, claiming witnesses “may have seen things from the wrong angle and from a distance, especially in a dimly lit and large venue”.
Pc A said she did not report the incident at the time because “there was a laddish culture on the team” and she feared being ostracised.
“Whilst the Metropolitan Police was a large organisation, anything that happened to a police officer followed them around,” the panel heard.
“If she reported it, she felt that it would get brushed under the carpet, and she didn’t want it to affect her career.”
The panel also heard that before the incident, Pc Beedel liked old photos of Pc A on Instagram, including pictures of her in bikinis, which she found “sinister”.
The panel found the allegations proven, and concluded that Pc Beedel harassed and caused distress and embarrassment to Pc A.
The touching “was not horseplay, and was done in pursuit of sexual gratification”, it added.
Pc Beedel’s actions breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour and he was dismissed from the force.
