The Times - UK (2022-01-13)

18 Thursday January 13 2022 | the times

News

A policeman has been sacked after he
took a photo of a woman’s partially
clothed body and sent it to a colleague
on WhatsApp with the caption “look
who’s turned up dead”.
PC Daniel Wallwork, of Avon and
Somerset police, sent the image from
his personal phone after he was sent to
the scene of the 42-year-old’s sudden
death in April 2020. She was lying face
down and partially clothed on a bed in
the photograph.
Yesterday his chief constable, Sarah
Crewe, dismissed Wallwork for gross

PC sacked for sharing photo of dead body

misconduct, saying he failed to treat a

vulnerable woman with dignity and re-

spect. She added: “This would undoubt-

edly have caused upset and distress to

her family and those who loved her.”

Wallwork took the photograph two

months before two Metropolitan police

officers shared photographs of the

bodies of Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole

Smallman, 27, who had been stabbed to

death. Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis

were jailed in December for two years

and nine months.

Avon and Somerset police said its

professional standards department had

concluded that Wallwork’s case did not

meet the criminal threshold and police

regulations were “the most appropriate

and proportionate” way to deal with it.

Wallwork, 40, who had been in the

police for seven years, claimed he sent

the image to notify his colleague of the

death of the woman, who lived in Rad-

stock, Somerset. He and his colleague

had prior involvement with her, includ-

ing when she was found intoxicated in

Midsomer Norton before her death.

Wallwork accepted misconduct but

denied his action amounted to gross

misconduct. Mark Loker, of the Police

Federation, which represents rank and

file officers, addressed the hearing on

Wallwork’s behalf and said the officer

was not mocking the dead woman.

Loker said that Wallwork felt sorry

for her: “He is someone who merely got

it wrong on the day and made a terrible

mistake or an error of judgement.” He

said it would be unfair to compare his

actions with Jaffer and Lewis as “the

values of today cannot be defined by

the values of another era”.

In his evidence, Wallwork said: “I felt

almost immediately that I had invaded

[the deceased’s] privacy.”

Mark Ley-Morgan, acting for the

force, suggested that he did not regret it

at all until four days later when he was

challenged by his colleague: “Only then

did you realise you were potentially in a

bit of trouble.”

Crewe found that there was no polic-

ing purpose for the photograph and

rejected the claim that Wallwork re-

gretted it. She noted that he had con-

tinued to exchange messages about the

deceased “for some time” after sending

the photo and said that he had failed to

treat the woman “with respect, dignity

or courtesy in the moment of her death,

when at her most vulnerable — partial-

ly clothed and exposed to his view”.

The officer who received the photo-

graph is under investigation.

Fiona Hamilton Crime Editor

A prominent fitness trainer sued a

London health club for age discrimina-

tion over claims that the management

insisted on playing modern music.

Fitzroy Gaynes, 64, who has an inter-

national reputation for his training

system, complained that the gym’s

policy of conducting workouts to music

recorded no more than 18 months ago

put him at a disadvantage.

Gaynes told an employment tribunal

in central London that he did not listen

to Radio One or go clubbing and pre-

ferred older music. The tribunal dis-

missed his claim for damages after the

club, which charges members more

than £200 a month, argued that tracks

recorded “years ago” did not have ade-

quate sound quality when played

through modern audio systems.

Gaynes started working part-time in

2001 as a trainer at Third Space, a

“luxury” health club chain with “out-

standing fitness spaces that members

feel are their own”. Its business plan

included a “music brand standards

policy” stating that music played in its

gyms must have been produced and

released in the previous 18 months.

The management insisted there was

no bar on “old” music provided it was a

recent recording or remix. Antony

Trainer, 64, exercised by

gym’s ban on ‘old’ music

Stewart, the company’s head of group

exercise, told the tribunal that he had a

background in the music business and

modern music sounded better. “Music

production has advanced significant-

ly,” he said.

The tribunal was told that in 2019 the

gym’s bosses investigated Gaynes for

his uniform and timekeeping practices.

It was also alleged that he ate in the

studios and left rubbish after classes.

That year Gaynes raised a grievance

alleging that he had been “targeted”

with bullying, harassment and age, race

and sex discrimination. His complaint

was dismissed. He raised a second

grievance the next year, alleging that

his colleagues and bosses were “racist

and ageist” and had conspired to have

him disciplined. When that complaint

was dismissed Gaynes sued the club.

Ruling that Third Space’s music

policy was not ageist, Judge Anthony

Snelson said the tribunal had heard no

statistical evidence “concerning the

musical preferences of persons sharing

[Gaynes’s] personal characteristics of

race and age” and “precious little infor-

mation as to [his] own musical tastes”.

He concluded that it was “sad that

[Gaynes], at a late stage in his illustrious

career, should find himself expending

great emotional energy on recrimina-

tions and bitterness”.

Jonathan Ames Legal Editor

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