Leicestershire police constable Lynsay Watson was dismissed for creating fake Twitter personas to send abusive messages to a member of the public. She called Mr Miller, founder of campaign group Fair Cop, a “Nazi”, a “fascist”, a “bigot”, and a “narcissist”. PC Watson also doctored photos to suggest he was violent toward women, and labelled the Fair Cop group “domestic terrorists”.
PC Watson accepted at a hearing that her Tweets breached the standards of professional behaviour expected of her in her role, those of authority, respect and courtesy, orders and instructions and discreditable conduct. She also accepted this amounted to gross misconduct.
However, Detective Sergeant Andy Spence, who was representing her from the Leicestershire Police Federation, told the hearing PC Watson had been advised to use anonymous accounts online by her superior. She denied breaching the standards of honest behaviour as a result. Leicestershire Police accepted she had been advised to use anonymous accounts. However, PC Watson was still found guilty of dishonest conduct as she “had made assertions [about her identity] which were not true and that she did not need to make” and that went “well beyond seeking to maintain anonymity”.
Sergeant Spence added PC Watson felt she was acting in accordance with the police’s whistleblowing guidelines as Fair Cop states it has police officers as members of its group. She was using Twitter and her accounts to try to find out who those officers were, he added, as she felt this was necessary to protect people in the wider LGBT+ community.
Chief constable Kate Meynell, who was deciding on the case, said she was “not there to examine the validity of” PC Watson’s beliefs nor those of Mr Miller and Fair Cop, but to examine the conduct of PC Watson. She said: “I accept that the officer holds deep views on this subject and that those come from her personal experiences both in life and in policing. "I also accept that she has a right to set those views out and to defend and debate them. However, as a serving police officer this must be done in accordance with the standards of professional behaviour.” “The content of the officers Tweets is not in keeping with debate,” she added. “It is abusive, insulting and certainly discourteous. Referring to people as terrorists, Nazis and doctoring photos to suggest that they are violent towards women is conduct entirely divorced from proper debate.”
The Tweets were quickly linked to PC Watson as a serving police officer and brought discredit on the profession, the chief constable added. There were also elements of premeditation here, she added, as the accounts were set up with a specific intention.
PC Watson was dismissed without notice and added to a barred list.
PC Watson lost a case in 1998
Sex-change policewoman loses claim against federation over legal action
