Cop caught messaging ‘boy, 14’ on dating app
A POLICE officer sent inappropriate messages to someone he believed to be a child on a dating app.
South Wales Police PC Anthony French, 47, started chatting with someone who presented themselves as a 14-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr.
The person he was talking to was in fact an undercover Tarian police officer and French was arrested. A misconduct hearing held at South Wales Police headquarters yesterday found allegations against the former officer amounted to gross misconduct and he would have been dismissed from the force had he not resigned.
In the hearing it was alleged that on April 18, 2023, the former officer logged onto the Grindr dating app on his personal phone and started a conversation with a 14-year-old boy. The hearing heard that over a period of almost three hours the former officer sent inappropriate messages to the ‘boy’ despite believing he was 14.
The messages included French calling him “cute”, asking the boy if it was them in their profile photo, and confirming their age as 14. The former officer also said the boy did not look 14, said he looked “rugby buff”, and commented on his “bod”. He also asked the boy to send him a photo of his “bod”.
At the same time as the conversation with the child, which was in fact an undercover officer, French accessed a pornography website and viewed videos of male pornography.
He was arrested the following day and denied the allegations against him. He also had an Apple iPhone seized.
Initially French claimed the mobile phone had been factory reset due to a fault and denied he had downloaded Grindr. He said the messages to the account purporting to be a child were not him and denied he had an inappropriate interest in children and teenagers. Further analysis on the mobile showed it had been used by French in the manner alleged.
He was arrested again in July on suspicion of attempting to mislead officers to avoid prosecution. He responded “no comment” to the allegations.
The accelerated misconduct hearing chaired by chief constable Jeremy Vaughan found the allegations proven as gross misconduct and the hearing delivered the sanction of dismissal if the officer was still serving.
Chief constable Vaughan said: “Whilst the CPS considered that this did not meet a criminal threshold it both met and significantly exceeded my threshold when setting the standards of behaviour within South Wales Police. It is only by chance that former PC French actually engaged with an undercover police officer online.
“The anti-corruption unit’s response was swift and deliberate.”
Chief superintendent Mark Lenihan, head of professional standards, said: “The former officer should have known through the extensive training with South Wales Police that such conversations and interaction with 14-year-old children is illegal and wholly inappropriate.
“At the very least he had an obligation to safeguard and report such vulnerable children but he chose not to.
“During interview he clearly lied to officers in an attempt to mislead the investigating officers and to avoid prosecution. South Wales Police expects its officers to act with honesty and integrity and not indulge in conduct which is discreditable and which undermines public confidence in the police service whether on or off duty.
“His behaviour fell well short of those standards and as a result has lost his career in the police service.”
French’s name will be submitted to the College of Policing barred list to ensure he cannot return to policing.
South Wales Police said a file of evidence was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service which decided not to pursue any criminal charges.