The force said it could not name the officer despite sacking him for gross misconduct after he tried to arrange to meet the child at a hotel
The Met Police has not named an officer who sent extreme sexual messages to a boy, despite sacking him without notice for doing so.
‘Officer X’, as he was referred to in a recent Met Police misconduct hearing, sent an image of his penis and vile messages to the 16-year-old boy on the messaging app Kik in April last year. He was also sent an explicit image of the child and discussed an extreme sex act with him.
The Met told MyLondon the officer could not be named due to a descison made by the misconduct hearing’s chair, former police commander Katie Lilburn, but was unable to reveal the specific reason why this had happened.
The officer was caught by the National Crime Agency (NCA) after Kik flagged the victim as “at risk of online child exploitation for sending and receiving sexualised images”.
The NCA was able to access the officer’s ‘sexualised’ messages, which included plans to meet the boy in a hotel. The chat then progressed to Officer X sending a photo of his penis after he was sent an explicit picture of the child.
At the misconduct hearing, former police commander Lilburn found that the officer had committed gross misconduct. She said: “The sanction I impose is dismissal without notice and that Officer X be placed on the College of Policing’s public barred list.”
The force said it could not give specific reasons why the officer’s name could not be made public, but a spokesperson said that the chair may take into account various factors, including but not limited to “protecting the officer’s private and family life, welfare and medical considerations, safety and wellbeing of the officer or any other person, the interests of justice and whether disclosure would undermine the fairness or proper conduct of the proceedings”.
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