Latest news with #IvanBalhatchet
BBC News
31-07-2025
- BBC News
Northamptonshire police officer messaged teen on social media
A police officer who asked to meet a vulnerable teenage girl after first contacting her on social media has been found to have committed gross Police said it would have dismissed Mitchell Shorley without notice if he had not already resigned two weeks before his hearing.A misconduct disciplinary hearing on Wednesday heard that Mr Shorley, who joined the force in March 2022, started messaging the 16-year-old via TikTok on 12 June Constable Ivan Balhatchet said he was "appalled" by the "abhorrent behaviour", adding: "This is a serious case of an officer using his position to attempt to exploit a vulnerable young woman." The girl, known as person A, regularly posted videos about mental health and welfare on her TikTok account. She was a "looked after child" in the care of the local authority, and her social media posts reflected her personal Shorley messaged her and introduced himself as a police officer and began a series of communications, the hearing was there was a break in contact, it was the police officer who started messaging again, often under the pretext of checking the teenager was was willing to communicate with Mr Shorely but later told police she felt he had groomed her. Inappropriate purpose On 6 July 2024, he suggested moving the conversation to the social media app Snapchat, which does not retain message history and allows users to share hearing was told there was no suggestion that any sexual images were sent, but that Mr Shorley sent photos of himself while on A reported feeling "spammed" by more frequent messages once they moved to Snapchat, saying the messages also became suggestive and 13 August Mr Shorley allegedly told the teenager, "You'd look good with a police officer boyfriend", and admitted to having a crush on suggested meeting in person, which made the teenager feel uncomfortable, at which she pointed she spoke to a member of staff at her home who reported the case to police. Mr Shorley did not attend the misconduct Constable Balhatchet added: "I believe that on the balance of probabilities, the evidence proves that the former officer's conduct was cynical, manipulative and that this was an abuse of his position for an inappropriate sexual purpose."The public need to know that there is no place in the police service for people that abuse their position for their own ends or exploit the vulnerable."My decision is therefore that the former officer would have been dismissed had he not resigned." Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
11-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Talks with Northants Muslim leaders will build trust, say police
A chief constable said a meeting with Mosque leaders helped him to understand "how we can build trust and confidence".Northamptonshire's most senior police officer, Ivan Balhatchet, recently met leaders of 11 Mosques with the county's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC), Danielle discussed community tensions, hate crime and ways of improving chair of Kettering Muslim Association said the talks would help to "build the trust and confidence we have in policing". The "round table" in Wellingborough followed a similar event with black church leaders in the Labour PFCC, said: "I am on a mission to make communities safer and to improve the relationships between all our communities and our police and fire services."All of our local faith groups are very good at putting services in place that help and protect people, and they are hugely influential in their respective communities."Bringing us all together will help to forge a strong partnership," Stone discussion included anti-social behaviour, drug use in town centres and increasing diversity in the police and fire services. The Mosque representatives were also told about the PFCC's relaunched grant fund for community Balhatchet said: "We recognise that policing currently doesn't reflect the communities that we serve as much as it should. "Hopefully this meeting is the start of a process that will help to build better lines of communication."We want to reach a point where the Muslim community trust that their concerns are being dealt with, and that they see a force in which they feel truly represented. "I will do everything in my power to achieve that." Inam Khan, chair of the Kettering Muslim Association, said the meeting was "useful in terms of helping to build the trust and confidence that we have in policing, and we hope that this can continue in the future."Alaa Abouzanad, chairman of Northamptonshire Council of Mosques, added: "This was the first time that all our Muslim leaders in Northamptonshire have met with the commissioner and chief constable. "We hope this is the first step in helping to improve the relationship we have with the police, so that together we can tackle problems in our communities." Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
