A Tayside police officer was sacked amid allegations of him sexually abusing a child and unlawfully accessing police computers to find out information regarding complaints about him by his partner.
The 46-year-old probationary officer was later convicted of sending an abusive text to his former partner.
The man, who had been with the force for almost two years, threatened to kill the woman during their “extremely hostile relationship”, a court heard.
A joint social work/police interview was also criticised during a contact hearing at Dundee Sheriff Court.
The police officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had initially sought a residence order or, if not successful, a contact order to allow him to see the young child.
In his judgment, Sheriff Richard Davidson rejected the application, stating “there is a risk at least that he was the perpetrator of acts of abuse. The risk of abuse is too high for the child to be exposed to it.”
In the judgment, it was stated that prior to becoming a police officer, the man was a carer with a charity, at one point working with a young autistic adult on a one-to-one basis. However, he had mental health issues dating back to when he was a teenager, suffering from clinical depression exacerbated by his use of cannabis.
After accumulating a £15,000 debt, he applied to join Tayside Police in 2008 and was accepted by the force, becoming a probationary officer in April of that year.
After serving for 23 months, however, his employment was terminated on account of complaints about his behaviour relating to the breakdown of his relationship, plus his misuse of the police national computer system to obtain information about his partner. That also included complaints made about his behaviour, the judgment states.
During their cohabitation, the officer was “consuming alcohol to excess on a daily basis”, and was unemployed, bankrupt and depressed, the judgment continued.
After the relationship ended, he had contact with the child on Saturday nights.
After allegations of sexual abuse towards the pre-school-age child over a two-year period, the child was eventually interviewed by a trained social worker/police team in early 2010. That interview was described by a child psychologist as “badly conducted”, with the psychologist stating the child was “pressurised, wailing and crying loudly, gasping and very distraught and was prevented from leaving the room.”
Despite the allegations, contact had continued as the man denied the claims, stating his former partner had made it up.
Eventually, contact was suspended, however, despite there being a “material risk of sexual abuse,” allegations of sexual abuse were “inconclusive,” the judgment stated.
The court heard that, apart from two supervised meetings, there has been no contact between the man and the child since February 2011.