Police officers sacked over 'intimate' sex video scandal
Two police officers, based in Cowley, Oxford, have been dismissed over a sex video scandal after a hearing last month found the two guilty of gross misconduct. They were sacked following the hearing.
One of the Oxford-based police officers showed an 'intimate' video of a woman he had been having an affair with to a colleague who lied about watching it.
PCs John Birch and Daniel Gunston met up while off duty and discussed the sex video. It showed a woman in an 'intimate state', as well as other pictures on Birch's phone. Days later, Gunston shared with his colleagues he had seen an 'interesting video' but denied watching it and said he had briefly seen thumbnails that were hard to make sense of on Mr Birch's phone.
The Thames Valley Police Misconduct Hearing held last month heard Birch had 'brandished his phone' and showed Gunston 'at least one of the videos', which showed the woman in an 'intimate state'.
The police officers, who became friends before joining the police, were found guilty of gross misconduct and sacked directly after the hearing. The identities of the police officers' were initially kept anonymous but were revealed after they were dismissed.
Gunston was a member of a team that won a Police Federation Excellence Award in celebration for its response to a crash which killed a mother and three of her children in 2020.
Birch had the consensual sexual relationship with the woman, whose identity has not been shared with the public, in February 2024. In a misconduct interview in March 2024 Birch admitted that he had two videos of himself and the woman engaging in sexual activity.
Birch did admit to sharing the description of the videos, stating 'he explained the videos in detail' to Gunston, yet said he did not show the video because he would have been 'embarrassed'. Birch added that Gunston might have seen intimate images of the woman as he was 'waving his mobile phone around.'
The panel said that Gunston 'dishonestly denied' having seen the video, despite Gunston telling three supervisors that Birch had shown him the video.
Gunston's backtracking on what he had seen on his colleague's phone amounted to 'operational dishonesty', according to the panel.
The misconduct hearing concluded that Birch's actions were 'intentional and deliberate' and that he was 'disrespectful' to the woman by showing the video to his friend and colleague.
The panel concluded: "The panel considered the outcome which would most appropriately fulfil the purposes of imposing sanctions in the light of the seriousness of PC Gunston's conduct.
"Based on the assessment of seriousness that had been carried out, and given the overall circumstances of the case, the panel decided that a final written warning would not satisfy the threefold purpose of the misconduct process therefore the only appropriate sanction in this case is dismissal without notice."
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