PC fired after sexual comments about female victim

A police officer has been sacked after he made sexualised comments about a female assault victim he had photographed while she was wearing revealing underwear.

PC Robert Chambers was found to have committed gross misconduct and was dismissed following a panel by Thames Valley Police.

The officer claimed he was shocked when the victim entered the room wearing a vest top and string thong but did not make an effort to protect her dignity while investigating an assault in April 2024.

The panel heard that before taking evidence photos, Mr Chambers told the woman she was very tanned and later hinted to a colleague he wanted to have sex with her.

According to the panel, Mr Chambers was at the address of a woman known as Miss A to investigate an assault committed by her partner the previous day.

The officer said the woman took him too literally when he asked her twice to be photographed wearing her underwear as he did not mean for her to wear "only underwear".

In footage captured by body worn camera, Miss A is "very uncomfortable" and calls ahead to warn her father, who was present, that she was wearing a revealing outfit.

According to the panel, more options should have been offered to the woman, such as visiting the police station where a female officer could have taken the photos.

The panel was also critical of how PC Chambers, who had no medical training, kept "unnecessarily" touching the woman under her breast where she was injured.

Although Miss A told the panel she did not find the touching sexual, the report found these behaviours in combination amounted to misconduct.

After leaving the address, Mr Chambers made comments about the woman's appearance to another officer and intimated he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her.

He also made generalised comments about the traveller community, which Miss A was part of, and asked his fellow officer what sort of women he was into.

The panel found Miss A would have felt violated if she had heard the comments and concluded it was gross misconduct.

On another occasion, colleagues recalled how they challenged Mr Chambers after he had made comments about a missing girl aged 13 or 14.

Witnesses disagreed over if he had described her as a "pretty girl", "attractive" or "hot" but Mr Chambers could not recall the incident.

The panel concluded this was also gross misconduct.

He had also made inappropriate and sexualised comments about his armed response mentor, which was also deemed as misconduct.

The panel heard how on another occasion he had described a group of teenage girls passing the police station as "not bad looking".

In its conclusion, the panel said his overall his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct and that the only reasonable disciplinary action was dismissal.

It also credited the courage of the officer who came forward with concerns about his more experienced colleague.

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