Handling of disclosure at a court trial – Sussex Police, April 2019

In April 2019, a trial started for six defendants who had been charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

During the criminal trial, evidence came to light that a detective may have failed to comply with disclosure responsibilities in relation to the trial.

This came to our attention in May 2019 as a conduct referral.

Evidence obtained by our investigation indicated that the detective sent several emails to a financial investigator who had worked on the police operation.  She appeared to state there was material which had been gathered during the investigation but not viewed or disclosed. She also appeared to ask the financial investigator not to mention such material during the trial.

Following these emails, Sussex Police carried out a review of the officer’s disclosure which resulted in a discovery that discs containing CCTV were available but had not been disclosed. In addition, three discs were found which contained a download of one of the defendant’s mobile phones, which had also not been disclosed.

During our investigation, we criminally interviewed the officer and obtained statements from the colleague she emailed. We also took statements from other officers and members of staff who worked alongside them.

We reviewed all the material held on the officer’s computer which related to the case as well as physical material held in a storeroom and documents which were held on Sussex Police shared folders.

The detective was investigated for misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice, but after thorough analysis of the evidence, the case was not referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.

We concluded our investigation in April 2020 and determined the detective had a case to answer for gross misconduct. We waited for the misconduct hearing to conclude before sharing our findings.

In December 2020, a gross misconduct hearing was held where the detective was dismissed without notice and placed on the College of Policing barred list.

We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

In this case we identified organisational learning relating to disclosure training, clearer communication to outline disclosure roles and responsibilities and formalising policies that detail the storage and recording of material during an investigation.
 

You can read our recommendations in full here.