A Cheshire police constable was sacked after he was caught watching pornography, sending nude images and texting about his rape fantasy while on duty, documents show. Anthony Spelman, known to many as Tony, served as a police constable until his dismissal earlier this year.
Abuse of position
The former officer faced serious allegations that included sharing his fantasies about rape and sexual messages with numerous women while on shift for Cheshire Police. Spelman, who is understood to live in Merseyside, was found to have shared sexual messages with two separate women who knew he was a police officer, where he raised these fantasies.
It was also alleged and proven that Spelman commenced a sexual relationship with a woman whose son he had arrested, therefore “abusing his position as a police officers for a sexual purpose”, chief constable Mark Roberts said in his misconduct report. He was found to have recognised the woman on a dating site from his contact with her before then sexually messaging her, meeting up with her and engaging in sexual activity with her.
90 messages a day
The report noted how Spelman engaged in “highly sexualised” exchanges with 12 women between April and September in 2023, where he would send and receive as many as 90 messages a day. The messages revealed a “preoccupation with your own sexual matters in the workplace” as well as this taking place while on duty.
Chief constable Roberts explained in his findings it would be “impossible to be diligently discharging your policing duties” due to the frequency of his messages with the dozen women. The final proven allegation states Spelman accessed pornography on his personal mobile phone while on duty.
Dismissal without notice
During the accelerated misconduct hearing held in private on April 28 this year, Spelman did not present any mitigation to the litany of allegations, with chief constable Roberts stating his length of service and role for the police force made him find the behaviour all the more shocking. Chief constable Roberts concluded his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct resulting in his dismissal without notice.
The report said: “I have started by assessing the seriousness of the conduct – it seems to me that PC Spelman was completely fixated on establishing new sexual partners with multiple females when he ought to have been on duty, and of course this is a serious matter, as such behaviour is incompatible with the discharge of his duties.”
Deputy Chief Constable Mike Evans said: “Before beginning their careers, police officers swear an oath to act with honesty, integrity and to promise to abide by the clear guidelines about the standards expected from all of our operational staff. Sadly, former PC Spelman ignored these core guidelines and principles on a number of occasions and thought he could act in such an unacceptable way without consequence - he was wrong.”
“Spelman’s actions fell well below what is expected of our officers and his actions have now resulted in him being dismissed from Cheshire Constabulary and barred from re-entering the profession. His actions do not reflect what the constabulary stands for and anyone found breaching the principles and guidelines we are proud to uphold across the force, will face similar consequences.”
