A Merseyside policeman was formally sacked after committing a litany of disciplinary offenses
A tribunal has sacked police officer Ryan Connolly from the Merseyside force after it emerged that he’d taken a selfie at a murder scene and sent several racist, homophobic and offensive images, police confirmed to The Guardian.
The tribunal decided that during his six years in the police force, PC Ryan Connolly frequently failed to meet standards, The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday. Among a litany of misdemeanors, Connolly was found to have taken a selfie at the scene of a teenage murder in 2018, in which the victim had been stabbed multiple times.
"Connolly had taken photographs of vulnerable people on his personal phone whilst on duty … This breached the duty of confidence; lacked honesty and integrity and through his discreditable conduct he has undermined public confidence," Merseyside police's deputy chief constable, Ian Critchley, told the paper.
The former officer, who was formally sacked after the disciplinary proceedings, claimed he knew nothing of the images on his Samsung phones which incriminated him.
His misdemeanors began in 2014 and included owning grossly racist photos, notably ones of Muslims, taking and sharing pictures of hospitalized people detained by police under their mental-health powers, as well as disseminating an image of someone who had slit their wrists.
Other breaches of conduct codes included a graphic and homophobic text sent in 2016. He also took and shared a photo of another officer's backside.
He was cleared of trying to procure cannabis while serving as an officer. "Connolly maintained contact with a known criminal and did not disclose the relationship… as a result, by socializing and associating with the criminal, brought the service into disrepute," Critchley added.
The former officer's phones were seized by an anti-corruption unit in February 2020. Connolly resigned in November prior to his formal sacking.
Police confirmed that the selfie taken from the stabbing did not show the teenage victim.