credit;PA
A police officer has been sacked after he failed to investigate the alleged rape of a school pupil.
PC Mark Beardsley had been told by a member of staff during a visit to a high school in 2018 that a child under 13 had been having sexual intercourse.
Even though PC Beardsley had been made aware of this information, the Safer Schools Officer responded inappropriately.
In law, nobody under the age of 13 can legally give consent, so the offence is classed as rape, said the NSPCC.
It was found that PC Beardsley failed to record the information as a crime, did not initiate an investigation, or refer the matter for the purposes of further safeguarding the child.
A misconduct panel ruled that PC Beardsley had breached the police’s standards of behaviour in relation to his duties and responsibilities.
The West Yorkshire Police officer was dismissed without notice following a misconduct hearing earlier this month which was held in private due to the nature of the allegations.
PC Beardsley was told in 2018 by a member of staff at a secondary school that a child under the age of 13 had been having sexual intercourse, the hearing was told.
He discussed the matters further with the child and staff member in a second meeting at the school that took place a week later.
West Yorkshire Police said that following the second meeting the PC knew or should have known that the child was a potential victim of child sexual exploitation and was at “significant risk of harm”.
Following the hearing, Detective Superintendent Richard Crinnion of West Yorkshire Police Professional Standards Directorate, said: “Safeguarding children and investigating serious sexual offending involving children remains a key priority for West Yorkshire Police, and the force is dedicated to doing all it can to protect young people.
“In this case Mark Beardsley was made aware of a serious safeguarding risk to a child at a school he worked at, but failed to either record or investigate the information he received, completely failing to safeguard a victim at risk of very serious harm.
“This was a very serious breach of our Standards of Professional Behaviour in relation to Duties and Responsibilities and utterly at odds with the standards of care and professionalism we rightly expect of our officers.
“As a result, the officer attended Misconduct Hearing where the decision of the independent legally qualified chair was to dismiss without notice.”
IOPC Regional Director Miranda Biddle added: “This was a child who was a potential victim of child sexual exploitation. PC Beardsley’s failure to initiate safeguarding measures, or a criminal investigation, put that child at further risk of harm.
“Pc Beardsley’s actions were not of the professional standards the majority of police officers and staff uphold. The panel’s decision confirms that his inaction was unacceptable.”
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