Northamptonshire police officer who videoed himself masturbating on duty is sacked alongside colleague who sent vile WhatsApps

A gross misconduct hearing was told how PC Thomas Lightfoot and PC Robert Rowland had sent disgusting messages to each other advocating violence and stalking toward women.

The messages themselves were not revealed in a public record of the proceedings, which took place at force HQ this morning (Friday, January 3).

But they were said to include misogynistic slurs directed at female colleagues.

The messages were sent during a three-and-a-half-year period between 2018 and 2022.

Chairing the panel, Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet, heard that PC Lightfoot twice exposed his penis and took a photograph whilst wearing police clothing over the top half of his body, including once while on duty at Weston Favell Police station.

Both incidents took place in April this year. He also took two videos of himself masturbating, in police uniform, at Campbell Square and Weston Favell Police Stations. During the filming of one of those videos he had been assigned to an ongoing incident.

The panel was also told that the men had exchanged vile messages about their female colleagues’ appearance; referred to members of the public in a derogatory way; advocated violence and stalking towards women; advocated violence toward children and used discriminatory language about people’s heritage.

Both men also failed to report each other when they received the messages.

Rowland, was the force’s Response Officer of the Year in 2021.

Neither officer attended professional standards interviews during the investigatory process. PC Rowland submitted a letter stating he was a ‘changed man’ and said that there was ‘no point trying to defend himself’, and PC Lightfoot accepted the accusations amounted to gross misconduct.

Both officers were absent from today’s (January 3) hearing. PC Rowland told the panel that he had surgery in recent days and asked for an adjournment, which was refused by the panel who were satisfied his representative could put his case forward.

PC Rowland has already resigned from the force but would have been dismissed anyway, and PC Lightfoot has submitted a resignation letter in recent days which has not yet been processed, so he was dismissed without notice.

Both are now on the police barred list so will never be able to become police officers again.

Following the hearing, Chief Constable Balhatchet said: “As the Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police, to hear and read about such vile behaviour, I am disgusted. These Officers are a total disgrace to the public of Northamptonshire, this Force and the wider police service. As I have stated before, I will continue to take the strongest possible action to root out people like these Officers, who should be nowhere near the police service.

"The public, and honourable, decent police officers who work hard through their whole careers to serve the public, deserve no less. The Officers’ conduct is entirely incompatible with continuing to serve. I have no hesitation in dismissing PC Lightfoot without notice and finding former PC Rowland would have been dismissed.”

Speaking after the hearing, Deputy Chief Constable Ash Tuckley said: “You can’t feel anything other than utter revulsion at the deeply racist, sexist and misogynistic messaging that went on between these two individuals over a long period of time on WhatsApp.

“Furthermore, Lightfoot took it upon himself to take indecent photos on police premises immediately following deployment at a number of serious incidents.

“When these allegations of gross misconduct came to light, the Force moved quickly to hold an accelerated misconduct hearing to ensure they are both removed from policing.

“Their appalling conduct is another depressing blow to the overwhelming majority of hard-working officers in Northamptonshire Police whose primary purpose is to protect the communities they serve.

“Once again, we have taken steps to root out people who have no place in the police service and our zero-tolerance of these types of behaviours remains as solid as ever.

“Our Professional Standards Department, now one of the biggest in terms of the size of our Force, has increased in size in the past year and we have brought in a number of very experienced detectives whose job it is to tackle police-perpetrated crime.

“Within Force we have further tightened our vetting processes and improved reporting channels who want to disclose misconduct issues and we continue to urge staff to come forward if they have concerns in this respect.

“Building the trust and confidence of the public in policing is absolutely imperative as is our unrelenting determination to improve culture and we will continue to go above and beyond in our resolve to do that.”