Two Northern Ireland police officers have been dismissed after one of them recorded a vulnerable woman in her bed while both made sexualised comments about her. The officers, identified only as Officers A and B, had been sent to the woman's home in 2021 after concerns were raised for her safety.
Footage taken by Officer A showed the woman, who had learning difficulties and mental health needs, in her nightwear, with Officer B standing at the foot of the bed. Officer A asked a "highly inappropriate question" about the woman's sex life using a slang term. Officer B shouted the comment and invited her to repeat it. The woman held up her tablet and told the officers she was recording. Officer A said they were having "craic" and told her to "lighten up", the report found.
Ombudsman's condemnation
Police Ombudsman Jacqui Durkin described the officers' behaviour towards vulnerable people as "utterly despicable". When investigators showed the woman the video, she said she had been unaware Officer A was filming her and felt "disgusted".
Durkin said: "Such behaviour from police officers tasked to assist a vulnerable woman at a time of distress is reprehensible. Recording a video while making sexualised comments to a vulnerable woman who was in bed in her nightwear was hugely inappropriate, a gross intrusion of her privacy and an affront to her dignity."
She added: "They demeaned her for their own amusement. It would be hard to imagine behaviour further removed from the care and compassion required by police officers in such a situation."
Investigation findings
The Ombudsman's investigation found Officer A had filmed and photographed people who had asked police for help, reported crimes, were intoxicated or were considered at risk of self-harm. He took the videos and photographs in people's homes, hospitals and police vehicles.
Investigators identified 18 people referred to in messages, videos and photographs from 2016 to 2021 found on Officer A's personal mobile phones. Some of the material was shared on WhatsApp, including with a member of the public, alongside sexualised and derogatory comments.
One of those identified was a woman Officer A had encountered several times after incidents of self-harm or concerns she might take her own life. In June 2019, while assigned to escort her to hospital, he sent a photograph to a member of the public along with details of her medical condition. Investigators also found footage in which Officer A mocked an elderly man's sex life and joked about a man who appeared to be asleep in the back of a police car.
Disciplinary outcomes
The investigation found Officer B had taken photographs of two vulnerable women and shared them with Officer A alongside sexual and derogatory messages about both women. In an interview, Officer B said he was a junior officer and that Officer A was his probationary support officer. He said he was "trying to fit in" and claimed he would not have acted that way if he had not met Officer A.
The officers' conduct came to light during an investigation into an allegation that Officer A had abused his position for a sexual purpose by starting a relationship with a woman he had met on duty. Police Ombudsman investigators arrested Officer A, searched his home and workplace and seized electronic devices. No action was taken against him following the initial investigation into the alleged relationship, but material found on his phones led to further inquiries. One found that 74 officers, including Officer A, had accessed police body-worn video footage without a legitimate reason. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) took management action against all 74 officers.
Officer A was sacked in 2025 after a separate internal PSNI Professional Standards investigation into evidence that officers had shared racial, sexist and misogynistic memes. Officer B was dismissed for gross misconduct in July 2026 following the Ombudsman's investigation.
A third officer, Officer C, received a final written warning after receiving a video of a vulnerable person from Officer A and later sending it back to him. Officer D was present when Officer A recorded a video but said they had been unaware it was being filmed.
Reactions and next steps
Durkin said: "Almost all of the people affected by these actions were vulnerable, some extremely so. They should have been treated with compassion and empathy. Instead, they were treated with nothing short of contempt." She added: "They were unworthy of the role of police officer and it is only right that they have been dismissed from the PSNI."
PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said: "It will shock and appal our officers and staff that any member of the public, needing our help, was treated in this cruel and dismissive way." He added: "We take any cases of misconduct of this nature extremely seriously. This is reflected in the dismissals of two officers. It is essential for public confidence in policing that complaints of this nature are fully investigated by the Police Ombudsman and we fully engage with these processes."
Justice Minister Naomi Long said she was "deeply saddened at the behaviours outlined" in the report and described the officers' actions as "abhorrent, wholly unacceptable and completely indefensible". She said: "There is no place in our police service for officers who behave in this way."
