The Witchfinder General Will Always Find Witches...

'I will be appealing this decision, which I feel is wholly disproportionate to what I did, especially in relation to other much more serious recent offences in Hampshire where police officers were not dismissed.

'I also have serious reservations about how this case has been handled by Hampshire Constabulary as it has taken almost two years to come to a conclusion.

'Myself and my legal team also felt it was not appropriate the Chief Constable chaired the hearing following her recent involvement in those more serious misconduct offences. However, this objection was dismissed.'

And who is the Chief Constable? Why, none other than Olivia Pinkney! Yes, her.

Yes, And These Are Exactly The Sort Of People…

…who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it!

Outgoing deputy chief constable Olivia Pinkney said the move was being explored given that the increased reporting of sex crimes was "showing no signs of slowing down".

She told the police and crime commissioner: "While this is not the role that every police officer wants to do, I know people out there who would only want to do this kind of work and are not interested in other areas of police work and they have all sorts of backgrounds that are entirely relevant to child abuse investigation. "

So, draw exclusively from the murky pool of people who already have ‘an interest’ in the work?

I can’t see this all going horribly wrong at all, can you, reader?

"For example, somebody who has been involved in social work, in youth work, something like that from the medical profession, who might actually only want to do this type of work. We want to look at pathways for bringing them in to do that. "

Oh, right. One might refer to them as ‘the usual suspects’, mightn’t one?

"This is a huge part of our responsibility and we take it really seriously."

You show you take it seriously by…giving it to someone else?

And not just anyone else, but the very people who should be kept as far from it as possible?

I Thought What You Didn’t Know Couldn’t Hurt You..?

Two police officers are being investigated over “distressing” social media messages relating to the Shoreham airshow crash.

Good lord! Well, if people will post things on public fora, then they only have themselves to bl…

Oh. Hang on!

Sussex police said a private online message was allegedly sent to a colleague about Operation Bowdell – the force’s response to the disaster.

The recipient immediately reported the incident and the two officers, who are based at Brighton and Hove, are under investigation for gross misconduct by the professional standards department.

Well, that’s a little different, isn’t it?

According to the ‘Argus’, the ‘distressing message’ is a selfie. Tactless? Stupid? Maybe.

But ‘professional misconduct’..?

Deputy chief constable Olivia Pinkney said: “I cannot emphasise how upset I am that we are investigating such an allegation.

My colleagues have informed the victims’ families and apologised to them for it will undoubtedly cause them.

It’ll only cause them distress because you’ve seen fit to make a public ballyhoo about it!

“They are disappointed as we all are. Such an allegation impacts on everyone who was affected by the crash and detracts from the professionalism of hundreds of colleagues who have worked so tirelessly on this operation.”

What does one think detracts more from ‘professionalism’, then? The (possibly juvenile) sending of a selfie, or the hysterical overreaction and ‘stab colleague in the back to get brownie points’ behaviour of the officer who received the photo and, instead of saying ‘Yuck! Please don’t send this sort of stuff!’ immediately shopped his or her colleagues to the Thought Police?