South Yorkshire Police officer committed gross misconduct in handling of relationships with two women

The hearing into the actions of former PC, Joseph Wilby, took place on Monday and Tuesday this weel, with a police misconduct panel looking at his actions after claims he pursued an inappropriate relationship with the victim of a crime he responded to and gave false statements after calling South Yorkshire Police to his ex partner’s home.

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Nevertheless, Wilby did not attend the hearing and provided no reason as to why.

Evidence from Wilby was gathered during three separate interviews between October 2022 and March 2023, and a pre-hearing confirmed no further live evidence would be needed - though the panel did still expect him to attend.

The former officer resigned only a day before the hearing began (April 27).

On August 29, 2021, Wilby was tasked with investigating an allegation of domestic abuse which concerned a 22-year-old victim known as Miss A.

His duties required him to attend her home and meet her in person.

While the case was formally recorded as a ‘no further action’ to be taken, only a few days later on September 3, Wilby continued to contact Miss A and as a consequence faced eight allegations of misconduct this week due to this correspondence between the initial incident and February 19, 2022.

On September 14 he visited her father’s home whilst on duty then contacted her by phone on February19, with further texts sent until October that year.

In these texts Wilby said that Miss A was ‘looking good’ and included kisses on the end of each message, which the panel had no hesitation in concluding was entirely inappropriate for a serving police officer to send to a former alleged victim of domestic abuse

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Furthermore, on multiple occasions Wilby is found to have accessed police records without legitimate cause, once while talking on the phone with Miss A.

During his relationship with Miss A, Wilby failed to make a ‘notifiable association’ disclosure in relation to their connection, as required by policy.

In a separate incident, Wilby was also found to have ‘concocted a series of untruths’ after visiting the home of a 19-year-old girl - referred to as Miss B - on December 16, 2022.

While there, Wilby called the police to her home, dragging other officers to the address in an attempt to cause distress to Miss B and potentially another man at her home.

The panel found that a short-lived relationship which Wilby had with Miss B had come to an end at her instigation that day and that this had led to upset and jealousy over her potential affections for someone else.

The panel also found that Wilby knowingly gave a false account when calling the police and noted that the officer ‘who had expressed such care for the welfare of Miss B as her friend, in the phone call to police, did not remain or assist the police who attended at her address’.

He was found responsible for gross misconduct in seven out of nine allegations brought before the hearing and would have been dismissed if he had not already resigned, the panel concluded.

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