Rotherham scandal: Detective avoids sack at misconduct hearing

LONDON: A detective has avoided being sacked despite admitting gross misconduct in relation to an investigation into child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham after a disciplinary panel said he should not be held personally accountable for the “systemic failings” of South Yorkshire Police.

Dc Ian Hampshire admitted failing to properly investigate allegations made by a teenage girl that she had been raped by multiple men in the town in 2007, at the start of a two-day police misconduct hearing in Sheffield.

On Tuesday, a disciplinary panel decided Dc Hampshire should be issued with a final written warning rather than being dismissed after hearing that his conduct in relation to the girl was part of much wider failure by South Yorkshire Police to deal with child sexual exploitation in Rotherham at the time.

Panel chairman Simon Mallett said: “It would be wrong for this panel, and it would be wrong for this officer, to make him personally accountable for the systemic failings of the force.”

Dc Hampshire, who has 23 years’ service with the force, is understood to be the first officer to face a disciplinary hearing following the CSE scandal in Rotherham. In 2014, the Jay Report shocked the nation when it detailed how at least 1,400 children were raped, trafficked and abused by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani heritage in the town between 1997 and 2013.

The report criticised the lack of action by police and social workers and provoked a wave of resignations and further inquiries. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launched Operation Linden into police conduct in relation to the scandal – the organisation’s second biggest inquiry after the investigation into the Hillsborough disaster – but this report has not yet been published.

The hearing heard that the girl, who was about 16 at the time, made a series of complaints of rape to other officers during a police interview in May 2007. But the allegations against Dc Hampshire related to further claims she made after he took over her case.

These included a claim that she was raped by a number of men on the night before she was due to be interviewed by Dc Hampshire and another detective about other alleged incidents.

She disclosed that she was plied with drink and taken to different addresses before waking up with man in a Rotherham park.

The hearing heard that Dc Hampshire made “good, positive first steps” by taking the girl for a forensic examination and driving her around to see if she remembered where the recent attacks happened. But he admitted that he later failed to progress the investigation and keep the teenager updated with what was happening.

Ed Pleeth, putting the case against the officer at the hearing, said the detective failed to take “basic steps that should have been immediately obvious to any police officer”.

Jason Pitter QC, for Dc Hampshire, argued that his client’s admitted failings in relation to the girl had “to be considered in the context of systemic failings within South Yorkshire Police at the relevant time”. A restriction preventing the reporting of the hearing was lifted on Tuesday.