South Wales Detectives Sacked over Bungled Sexual Assault Investigation

Two South Wales detectives have been sacked for failing to investigate a colleague's alleged indecent exposure and sexual assault.

Det Insp Phillip Camm and Det Sgt Richard Jones were both dismissed for gross misconduct after an independent investigation found they "failed to deal properly with the criminal allegations" against family liaison officer Jeffrey Davies.

Davis was jailed in August after he attacked two domestic abuse victims while he was on duty.

An Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation discovered that neither Camm nor Jones had passed two women's complaints to the force's professional standards department.

The probe also found Jones's computer contained sexually explicit emails and documents.

Judge Paul Thomas said Davies, who had been appointed as a family liaison officer to help victims of domestic violence, "took advantage and preyed upon vulnerable women for your own sexual ends".

The IPCC investigation into the handling of the complaints revealed that neither woman orginally wanted to make an official complaint against Davies but changed their minds after the professional standards department (PSD) became involved.

After a five-day hearing, the IPCC found that Camm failed to refer the complaint from Woman B to PSD, nor treat her as a victim of a sexual offence, and failed to carry out an effective investigation. He treated the allegation as a malicious complaint. Jones failed to refer Woman A's complaint to PSD.

The investigation also uncovered a series of inappropriate emails and documents from Jones' computer, a number of which were sexual in nature.

One document was created the day after Woman B had made an allegation of indecent exposure against Davies and contained lewd sexual and derogatory references to the complainant.

Another document, written a few weeks after Woman B's allegation, contained a list of questions about staff members with multiple choice answers and a number of sexually explicit remarks.

Jones told the IPCC that the quiz was used on a bus journey on a trip outside work hours with colleagues.

It was proven that Jones deleted the documents from his work computer once he became aware of the IPCC investigation. He had also misused the force computer system to send lewd and inappropriate emails to colleagues including officers under his supervision.

Camm did not challenge the behaviour of his officers and failed to report emails from Jones containing inappropriate language. He was dismissed after it was found proven that he had lied to the IPCC in an interview.

IPCC commissioner Jan Williams said: "The allegations made by these women against Jeffrey Davies were extremely serious and should have been treated that way from the outset. They were vulnerable women who had turned to the police for help and had found themselves subjected to an appalling abuse of trust."